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AUTHOR: 


DUCKETT,  ELEANOR  SH 


TITLE: 


HELLENISTIC 

INFLUENCE.., 


PLACE: 


NORTHAMPTON,  MASS 


DA  TE : 


1920 


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Duckett,  Eleanor  Shipley. 

Hellenistic  influence  on  the  Aeneidt:h[microf orm] 

Northampton,  Mass.  ,t^cl920. 

xi,  68  p.^c23  cm. 

Virgil. ^tAeneis. 

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MONUFflCTURED   TO  RUM  STflNDfiRDS 
BY  APPLIED  IMAGE.    INC. 


SMITH  COLLEGE  CLASSICAL  STUDIES 


Number  I 


June,  1920 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE 
ON  THE  AENEID 


BY 


ELEANOR  SHIPLEY  DUCKETT,  Ph.D. 

Assistant  Professor  of  Latin,  Smith  College 


EDITORS 

John  Everett  Brady  Julia  Harwood  Caverno 


NORTHAMPTON,  MASSACHUSETTS 

1920 


r^ 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


SMITH  COLLEGE  CLASSICAL  STUDIES 


mi 


i#t 


Number  I 


June,  1920 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE 
ON  THE  AENEID 


rmNTIO  AND  tOUNO  Wt 

MOMI  lANTA  rUSLItMINa  CO. 

MANUPACTUNINO  PUBLItHiM 

MfNASMA,  WitCONMN 


BY 

ELEANOR  SHIPLEY  DUCKETT,  Ph.D. 

Assistant  Professor  of  Latin,  Smith  College 


EDITORS 

John  Everett  Brady  Julia  Harwood  Caverno 


NORTHAMPTON,  MASSACHUSETTS 

1920 


The  Smith  College  Classical  Studies  are  published  from  time 
to  time  by  the  Departments  of  Greek  and  Latin  of  Smith  College, 
and  have  for  their  main  object  the  encouragement  of  research  in 
classical  literature,  archaeology,  and  antiquities  by  providing  an 
opportunity  for  the  publication  of  studies  in  these  fields  by 
scholars  connected  with  Smith  College,  as  teachers,  graduate 
students,  or  alumnae. 

The  price  of  this  number  is  fifty  cents,  and  requests  for 
copies  should  be  addressed  to  J.  Everett  Brady,  Northampton, 
Mass. 


h* 


TO 

M.  B.  McE. 
— 6\lyriv  hbaiv  dXX'  kirb  Bvym — 


I 


CONTENTS 

I.     THE  HELLENISTIC  AGE .       1 

n.     THE    INFLUENCE    OF    HELLENISTIC    LIFE 

AND  LITERATURE— A 12 

in.     THE    INFLUENCE    OF    HELLENISTIC    LIFE 

AND  LITERATURE— B 38 

IV.     THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  TECH- 
NIQUE  46 


PREFACE 


The  influence  of  HeUenistic  literature  upon  Vergil  is  no  new 
subject,  for  commentators  have  long  since  exhausted  their 
efforts  in  bringing  to  Ught  every  resemblance  between  the  words 
of  Apollonius,  Theocritus,  or  CaUimachus,  and  the  language 
of  the  Aeneid,  Georgics,  or  Bucolics.     It  is  not,  therefore,  to 
actual  correspondence  of  letter  that  I  now  direct  my  attention 
nor  primarily  to  the  influence  of  Hterature  upon  Hterature;  but 
rather  to  correspondence  of  spirit  and  manner,  to  the  influence 
upon  Vergil's  mind  and  work  of  the  HeUenistic  tradition  of  life 
and  thought,  together  with  its  literary  expression.    Vergil,  as 
weU  as  other  Romans,  had  shared  the  inheritance,  good  or  evU, 
which  Roman  life  had  received  and  was  stiU  receiving  from  every 
part  of  the  HeUenistic  world,  Greece  and  Macedonia,  Egypt  and 
Asia.    To  the  general  education  derived  from  this  source  he 
could  add  special  training  in  HeUenistic  thought  and  theory: 
under  the  Greek  Parthenius,  he  had  grown  famUiar  with  these 
traits  of  HeUenistic  Ufe  as  they  were  represented  in  the  best 
poets  of  the  HeUenistic  day.     Further,  he  had  drunk  of  the 
HeUenistic  phUosophy  as  its  differing  Schools  had  offered  it  to 
him;  had  debated  with  Greek  dweUers  in  Italy,  and  had  finaUy 
looked  forward  to  drawing  from  Greece  herself  a  wider  knowl- 
edge in  which  to  steep  his  greatest  work.     "It  is  necessary," 
Warde  Fowler  reminds  us  in  one  of  his  studies  of  the  Aeneid, 
"to  msist  on  the  fact,  however  obvious  it  may  be  to  those  who 
know,  that  in  VirgU's  time  the  Empire  was  almost  as  much 
Greek  as  it  was  Roman.    Augustus  had  reunited  the  Greek  and 
Roman  elements,  the  east  and  the  west,  which  for  a  time  had 
been  sundered  under  sinister  Egyptian  influence.    Every  edu- 
cated Roman  was  bUingual  and  Greece  was  his  inteUectual  and 
also  his  spiritual,  home."    It  is  in  this  indirect  and  spiritual, 
not  in  the  verbal,  influence  of  HeUenistic  life  and  Uterature 
upon  VergU  that  I  find  a  reason  for  my  work.    No  one  as  yet, 
I  think,  has  adequately  traced  its  effect  upon  the  poet  who  grew 
up  in  the  midst  of  its  dominant  sway,  whose  youth  was  spent  in 
an  atmosphere,  as  we  may  learn  from  the  Ciris,  the  Culex,  and 


\f, 


X  PREFACE 

the  Cataleptofiy  surcharged  with  inquiries  regarding  phenomena 
both  psychical  and  physical;  combined  with  conscious  efforts 
toward  an  understanding  of  the  natures  of  men  and  qf  things, 
and  with  efforts,  equally  conscious,  directed  toward  the  repro- 
duction of  thought  in  fitting  form.  It  was  impossible  that  the 
man  whose  early  training  was  received  in  such  a  school  should 
fail  to  show  in  his  riper  work  certain  traces  of  Hellenistic 
influence — a  keener  insight  into  the  minds  of  men,  a  greater 
curiosity  concerning  the  things  of  Nature,  and  a  livelier  appre- 
ciation of  art. 

Especially  at  this  moment  is  this  study  of  interest;  for  now, 
after  much  debate  and  argument,  we  have  learned  to  recognize 
the  Cim  and  the  Culex  as  poems  of  Vergil's  youth.  ^  And  so  we 
are  ready  to  discuss  not  only  traces  of  Hellenistic  art  in  the 
Aeneidy  but  the  progression  of  Hellenistic  art  in  VergU  from  its 
cruder  manifestations,  as  revealed  in  the  earlier  poems,  up  to 
the  ripened  stage,  where  its  pervasive  subtlety  lends  richness 
to  this  latest  work.  In  tie  earlier  works,  written  at  a  time 
when  Hellenistic  influences  were  more  attractive  to  the  poet 
than  at  any  other  time,  the  fruits,  both  good  and  bad,  of  this 
training  can  be  distinguished  most  clearly.  Later  on,  as  the 
poet's  art  became  more  mature,  the  exaggerations  were  pruned 
away,  the  true  skill  was  developed  and  enriched.  It  is  easy  to 
put  one's  finger  on  the  Hellenistic  features  of  the  opera  minora; 
it  is  not  so  easy  to  do  so  for  theAeneid,  The  reason  is,  of  course, 
that,  while  in  the  Culex  and  the  Ciris  this  Hellenistic  influence 
is  as  yet  of  over-great  importance,  in  the  Aeneid,  while  it  leavens 
and  adds  spice  to  the  whole  story,  yet  it  does  not  forcibly 
obtrude  itself  upon  the  reader.  Vergil,  in  his  later  work,  has 
so  many  other  sources  of  inspiration  and  powers  of  artistic 
expression  at  his  command,  and  has  so  marvellously  welded 
them  all  together,  that  nothing  Hellenistic  jars  upon  us,  or  can 
be  separated  from  the  whole  which  he  made  his  own. 

1  Those  of  us  who  are  willing  to  agree  with  E.  K.  Rand:  "instead,  then,  of 
creating  from  Bucolics y  Georgics,  and  Aeneid  a  definition  of  what  Virgil  at  all 
times  must  have  been,  and  by  that  definition  excluding  the  minor  poems  as 
unworthy  of  him,  we  should  accept  the  ancient  statement  and  in  the  light  of  it 
enlarge  our  understanding  of  Virgilian  qualities,  thankful  for  the  opportimity 
of  seeing  his  genius  mount  from  stage  to  stage":  Young  Virgil's  Poetry,  Harvard 
•  Studies  in  Classical  Philology,  XXX,  1919,  pp.  103  ff.;  see  also  Tenney  Frank, 
Vergirs  Apprenticeship,  Classical  Philology,  January,  1920,  pp.  23  ff. 


PREFACE 


XI 


Furthermore,  it  is  obviously  true  that  our  study  of  Hellenis- 
tic influence  carries  us  but  a  little  way  in  our  search  for  the 
spirit  of  VergiL  As  is  true  with  every  genius,  so  he,  of  necessity, 
rises  above  each  literary  influence  and  tells  the  thoughts  that 
are  altogether  his  own:  student  of  man,  beast,  and  field,  he 
gives  us  primarily  himself.  The  elements  which  moulded  and 
developed  this  spirit  are  drawn  in  infinitely  deeper  measure 
from  the  old  Greek  epic  and  from  Greek  tragedy,  above  all, 
from  Euripides,  than  from  the  Hellenistic  School.  To  his  own 
nature,  trained  by  these  masters,  Vergil  owes,  indeed,  in  the 
first  instance  many  of  the  characteristics  here  discussed  in 
connection  with  Hellenistic  life  and  its  literary  form.  The 
Poet  himself — Man  and  Roman — has  been  revealed  to  us  in 
inimitable  fashion  and  in  manifold  lights  by  the  great  English 
students  of  Vergil.  Yet— for  all  that  sheds  any  light  on  Vergil 
is  of  interest — it  has  seemed  worth  while  to  study  briefly  the 
possible  effects  of  this  undoubted  influence  of  Hellenistic  Greece 
still  lingering  in  the  background  of  his  mind. 

In  these  pages  I  have  drawn  constantly,  especially  in 
Chapter  I,  from  Kaerst's  History  of  Hellenistic  Greece;  and 
from  Heinze's  Virgils  Epische  Technik.  The  titles  of  other  books 
which  I  have  consulted  or  from  which  I  have  taken  material 
are  given  at  the  end,  or,  for  special  reference,  in  the  notes.  To 
Professor  Tenney  Frank  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  I  owe 
the  gift  of  my  subject;  to  Professor  Florence  Alden  Gragg  of 
Smith  College  I  am  indebted  for  many  keen  criticisms  and  apt 
suggestions,  to  Professor  Mary  Belle  McElwain,  also  of  Smith 
College,  for  many  valuable  emendations  of  form.  Acknowledg- 
ment is  also  due  to  the  Classical  Journal  of  its  permission  to 
reproduce  material  published  therein,  especially  much  of  Chap- 
ters II  and  III;  and  to  Professor  Andrew  Keogh,  Librarian  of 
Yale  University,  of  his  courteous  assistance  in  my  research. 

Northampton,  Massachusetts, 
January,  1920. 


Mi; 


miA 


CHAPTER  I 
The  Hellenistic  Age 

With  the  victories  of  Alexander,  a  new  manner  of  life  starts 
for  the  Greek  worid.     The  City  State,  through  stasis  within 
and  federative  union  without,  has  ah-eady  lost  its  power,  and 
an  era  is  estabUshed  in  which  individual  personaHty  strikes 
the  dominant  note;  not  indeed  the  unreasoning  personaKty  of 
the  Tyrant,  but  one  that  seeks  to  embody  the  rule  of  reason  in 
its  own  hands.    Government  passes  from  the  control  of  citizens 
incorporated  in  a  rational  union  to  one  supreme  Head,  in  whom 
aU  authority  is  centred.     In  the  rapid  changes  foUowing  the 
death  of  Alexander,  advancement  in  Ufe  depends  on  a  man's  own 
merits;  among  the  many  struggling  for  highest  position,  the 
fittest  survive.    Supreme  authority  is  based,  not  upon  ancestral 
descent,  but  upon  personal  efficiency,  which  can  express  its  wiU 
in  personal  mandates  assuming  for  themselves  the  authority 
of  the  plebiscite.    AU,  therefore,  depends  upon  the  individual, 
conscious  of  his  own  capabiUty  and  awaiting  the  occasion  to  use 
it;  Alexander's  scheme  for  worid-rule,  vested  in  himself  as  the 
TatxpacLXeOs,  is  succeeded  by  individual  supremacies,  and  the 
individual,  once  firmly  planted  in  power,  perpetuates  his  rule: 
in  Egypt  the  son  of  Lagus  founds  the  House  of  the  Ptolemies, 
in  Syria  and  in  Macedonia,  after  many  and  various  Tcpix^rctat' 
the  dynasties  of  Seleucus  and  Antigonus  are  established.    The 
very  possibility  of  disaster  in  these  kaleidoscopic  days  of  swift 
reversal  of  fortune   makes  those  who  hold  rule  doubly  self- 
conscious   of  their  limitations,  as  of  their  powers;  they  gain 
their  place  by  their  own  might   and  hold  it  till  a  mightier 
comes  upon  them,  as  Diana's  king  once  did  at  Nemi. 

This  supreme  power,  then,  as  founded  by  Alexander,  resting 
on  and  springing  from  personal  achievement,  soon  assumed 
for  itself  the  title  of  king  in  the  various  countries  of  the  Hellenis- 
tic worid;  and  in  the  king,  aU  classes  of  life  centred.  Men  Uved 
in  cities  named  after  their  kmgs;  they  were  bound,  not  to  the 
State,  but  to  the  Monarch,  as  the  pivot  on  which  all  things 

1 


HELLENISTIC  INPLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


turned  in  a  bureaucratic  system  which  regulated  them  from  the 
highest  to  the  most  humble.  Land,  militia,  and  finance  were  of 
the  king's  domain;  intellectual  and  social  life  drew  inspiration 
from  him  as  patron  and  chief  lord:  he  was  as  the  Sun  in  the 
civic  universe.  As  its  Sun,  he  shed  on  others  his  glory,  in  vary- 
ing degrees  according  to  their  nearness  to  himself;  the  nobles  of 
the  Hellenistic  Court  were  the  king's  Friends,  their  children, 
the  royal  aijvrpo4>oi\  and  the  same  was  true  for  all  ranks,  for  the 
very  privates  in  the  army  were  his  Comrades.  Apart,  more- 
over, from  particular  acts  of  gracious  benignity  on  the  part  of  the 
sovereign,  he  bestowed  by  his  very  position  a  reflected  prestige 
upon  his  subjects.  For  by  his  importance,  the  importance,  real 
or  potential,  of  every  man  in  his  realm  was  necessarily  enhanced; 
since  the  sovereign  held  his  power  through  his  own  efficiency 
and  the  kindness  of  Fate,  and  what  one  man  had  done,  other 
men  might  do.  The  Hellenistic  world  was,  therefore,  strongly 
individualistic,  made  up  of  units  separately  invested  with  a 
potential  importance,  which  might  at  any  moment  be  realized 
before  the  public  eye.  The  deeds  and  sayings  of  those  who  at- 
tained to  prominence  were  chronicled,  and  the  writing  of 
biographies,  as  a  type  of  literature,  dates  from  this  time;  their 
features  and  expressions  were  studied  and  remembered:  for 
portraits  in   marble   and   bronze   were   now  first   commonly 

wrought. 

But,  further,  these  units  were  of  all  kinds,  as  is  natural; 
since  a  world  which  lays  special  stress  on  personality  we  may 
expect  to  find  cosmopolitan  in  character;  and  individuals  of 
widely  different  nations  strove  to  realize  their  special  destiny 
in  the  Hellenistic  kingdoms.  This  widening  of  social  limits  was 
naturally  advanced  by  the  extension  of  commerce,  in  which 
Macedonians,  Greeks,  Iranians,  Egyptians,  and  Semites  mingled 
freely  with  one  another;  and  the  mind  of  Alexander  had  already 
conceived  the  idea  of  a  great  World-Empire  embracing  at  least 
the  three  first  named.  The  distinction  between  Greek  and 
barbarian  was  becoming  obliterated  in  practice,  and  a  new  bond 
of  union  of  various  nationalities  was  being  forged,  based  on 
the  common  Hellenistic  culture,  of  which  a  common  language, 
the  icoiv^,  was  the  outward  sign. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  marks  of  this  increasing  value  of 
personality  under  monarchical  rule  appears  in  the  changed 


THE  HELLENISTIC  AGE 


position  of  women.  For  the  first  time  in  Greek  history,  woman 
had  now  a  chance  to  show  what  she,  too,  as  an  individual  could 
accomplish.  And  Fortune  aided  her  in  giving  to  the  feminine 
side  of  the  royal  house  a  special  importance  through  the  extinc- 
tion of  the  dual  line  by  the  murder  of  Alexander's  half-brother 
and  his  son;  for  by  marriage  the  Diadochi  sought  to  confirm 
their  claims  to  sovereignty.  Olympias,  accomplice  in  her  hus- 
band's assassination,  slayer  of  the  Thessalian  Arridaeus  and  his 
Illyrian  queen,  and  herself  pelted  to  death  by  the  relations  of 
those  she  had  slain:  Cleopatra,  sister  of  Alexander,  publicly 
defending  her  cause  before  the  Macedonian  army:  Arsinoe  the 
"moving  spirit  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,"  and  jointly  acknowl- 
edged with  him  in  the  cult  of  the  B^l  iZtK<t>ol,  as  Berenice  with  his 
predecessor  in  that  of  the  Saviour  Gods:  Laodice,  "the  evil 
genius  of  the  Seleucid  Empire"  and,  it  seems,  worshipped  with 
her  husband  "Theos" — these  were  individuals  well  able  to  earn 
their  own  prominence.  In  part,  the  untamed  blood  which  drove 
to  fury  Cynane  and  her  daughter  Eurydice  accounted  for  deeds 
of  violence.  In  a  more  civilized  sphere,  women  were  now  given 
special  honour  in  the  society  of  the  Imperial  Court,  joined 
schools  of  philosophy,  undertook  serious  study  of  letters  or  art, 
wrote  poetry  themselves  and  were  the  main  intellectual  inspira- 
tion for  the  men  whose  poetry  they  read;  obtained  freedom  of 
cities,  undertook  liturgies  in  Asia  Minor,  and  in  Athens  called 
forth  the  gynaeconomi  of  Demetrius  of  Phalerum  to  stay  their 
extravagance. 

A  system  in  which  promotion  is  based  on  individual  merit 
tends  naturally  towards  efficiency;  and  specialization  in  techni- 
cal knowledge  was  characteristic  of  the  individuals  of  this  time. 
The  bureaucracy  was  a  honeycomb  of  small  subdivisions  entail- 
ing special  professional  equipment;  and  in  this  period,  guilds 
of  tradesmen  and  workpeople  were  first  formed  in  Egypt.  The 
Dionysiac  Guild  was  a  similar  union  of  specialists  in  art;  and 
Kaerst  has  shown  how  this  professional  bent  appeared  in 
Egypt  as  described  by  Hecataeus  and  in  Euhemerus'  fabled 
island  of  Panchaea. 

Yet,  when  all  is  said,  the  Sun  eclipses  the  stars;  minor  differ- 
ences of  rank,  so  important  in  a  City-State,  tend  to  disappear 
when  confronted  with  the  one  great  distinction  common  to  all 
between  ruler  and  subject;  a  dull  level  of  monotony  now  spread 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


over  the  multitude  who  failed  to  attain  prominence,  and  from 
this  we  trace  in  part  the  pessimism  of  the  Hellenistic  age  and  the 
waning  of  political  life.  If  all  duties  centre  in  the  king,  why 
should  ordinary  men  trouble  themselves?  and  if  professional 
bureaucratics  are  paid  to  do  the  work,  what  responsibility 
devolves  upon  the  citizen?  all  are  but  pawns  in  a  monarch's 
diplomatic  game.  The  ambitious  sought  to  make  their  fortunes 
in  the  foreign  world  of  adventure;  feeling  for  home  politics 
disappeared,  long  before  the  time  of  Polybius,  who  will  have 
none  of  the  patriotism  of  the  City-State,  the  mark  of  a  foolish 
and  narrowminded  man.  The  spread  of  the  KOivrj  hindered 
patriotism  in  the  different  regions,  and  the  cosmopolitan  fusing 
of  races  took  away  special  interest  in  national  affairs.  Side  by 
side,  also,  with  subservience  to  monarchy  lay  the  hatred  of  this 
yoke  laid  on  men  who  had  once  been  free.  The  Athenians,  in 
gratitude  for  their  "liberty"  from  the  rule  of  Cassander's  gen- 
eral, hailed  Demetrius  and  his  father  as  Gods;  even  in  Eg)rpt, 
where  monarchy  was  an  established  principle,  the  Pharaoh 
was  forced  to  maintain  his  autocratic  rule  by  imported  military 
power:  for  his  hand  bound  on  his  people  heavy  burdens  of 
taxation. 

The  private  life,  therefore,  of  this  period  developed  to  a 
degree  unknown  in  the  City-State.  Men  turned  their  eyes 
from  without  to  within;  freed  from  civic  burdens,  they  now, 
some  gladly,  some  perforce,  gave  themselves  up,  in  steadily 
increasing  measure,  to  a  manifold  variety  of  individual  interests. 
This  concentration  in  a  narrower  sphere  led  to  a  realistic  view  of 
humanity  and  nature,  already  presented  to  the  world  by 
Aristotle,  and  to  an  interest  in  the  humble  things  of  the  world  of 
every-day.  Thus  we  reach  again  the  same  result — passion  for 
detail — which  interest  in  human  personality  has  given  us  in 
realistic  portrait-painting,  literary  sketches,  and  minute  records 
such  as  the  kit/ntJieplSes  of  Alexander.  Scientific  investigation  in 
botany,  zoology,  human  anatomy,  fostered  in  its  turn  the  habit 
of  noticing  details,  however  trivial;  intellectual  discussion,  so 
freely  promoted  at  this  time,  was  compelled  to  take  notice  of 
the  seemingly  unimportant.  The  same  tendency  is  true  of 
Hellenistic  art,  as  Helbig  has  shown.  Science,  once  established, 
stimulated  the  love  of  novelty,  which  drove  men  to  delve  into 
hitherto  unexplored  regions  of  society.   And  as  of  society,  so  of 


THE  HELLENISTIC  AGE 


territory;  Alexander's  campaigns  had  opened  up  new  worlds  in 
which  the  adventurous  and  curious  might  travel  by  land  and  sea 
in  search  of  new  lore;  the  royal  chroniclers  published  accounts  of 
all  they  had  seen  and  learned,  and  the  knowledge  of  the  Chal- 
daeans  and  the  Egyptian  priests  was  now  first  spread  abroad. 
The  marvels  that  came  to  light  inculcated  a  love  of  the  strange; 
and  the  aretalogus  who  entertained  the  company  super  cenam 
was  well  known  in  Hellenistic  circles,  among  those  who  truly 
spent  their  time  in  little  else  but  in  telling,  tracing,  or  inventing 
some  new  thing.  The  same  spirit  reveals  itself  in  the  art  which 
produced  the  Colossus.  Moreover,  the  current  flowed  in  two 
ways;  for  intellectualism  looks  not  only  forward  in  modern 
scientific  research,  but  backward  to  antiquity  in  the  feeling  for 
the  past.  Men  of  art  sought  the  "old  masters,"  men  of  litera- 
ture raked  up  old  myths,  men  of  scholarship  devoted  them- 
selves to  Commentaries  upon  Homer,  to  the  formation  of 
libraries,  to  philological  research;  tradition  was  all-important, 
authorities  and  sources  were  investigated  with  eager  zeal.  In 
the  midst  of  all  this  new  stream  of  knowledge,  it  is  little  wonder 
that  writers  felt  the  need  of  concentration;  there  was  no  time 
for  anything  but  brevity,  and  much  information  in  little  space 
was  the  motto  of  this  day. 

As  the  individual  turned  his  attention  to  the  study,  so  he 
cultivated  the  emotions,  of  private  life.  The  cult  of  friendship 
had  already  been  given  recognition  in  the  Sacred  Band  of 
Thebes;  it  had  been  given  official  standing  in  the  o^vrpcx^t,  who 
were  alike  the  counsellors  of  the  king  and  his  friends  from 
early  childhood;  and  in  the  o-u/x^worol,  a  group  of  philosophers 
admitted  to  the  intimacy  of  the  king's  table  for  the  enlivening  of 
the  play  of  argument  prevalent  at  Hellenistic  feasts.  But, 
further,  this  Hellenistic  age  was  a  time  especially  ripe  for  the 
welding  of  friendship  on  the  basis  of  similar  intellectual  thought 
and  natural  desires.  Patriotism,  including  the  many  interests 
of  civic  life,  had  gone,  and  marriage  was  a  formal  institution, 
readily  dissolved.  Although  the  wife  was  supreme  in  her  posi- 
tion in  the  home,  yet  this  bond  was  commonly  formed  for  the 
sake  of  social  and  official  status,  and  brought  little  depth  of 
feeling;  for  the  latter  a  man  turned  to  his  friends,  to  associations, 
such  as  that  of  the  Phalerean  Demetrius  with  Theognis,  and  to 
the  demi-monde.    Since  the  world  was  overwhelmingly  inter- 


6  HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 

ested  in  private  questions,  love  inevitably  assumed  a  position  of 
paramount  importance,  and  from  being  an  accessory,  became, 
itself,  an  end  and  object  of  study  and  experience.  The  formal- 
ism of  the  Hellenistic  family,  the  quickened  sense  of  feeling 
caused  by  a  quickened  mental  curiosity,  the  enhanced  desire  to 
penetrate  in  search  of  adventure,  led  men  in  the  direction  of 
sentiment.  In  keeping  with  the  sentimental  trend  of  life,  was 
the  hero-worship  of  the  bold  knight-errant  of  chivalry,  who, 
endowed  with  mighty  form  and  noble  mien,  knows  no  superior, 
renders  courtesy  for  courtesy  to  his  equals,  is  terrible  in  revenge, 
yet  can  show  generosity  to  those  he  has  overcome.  Such  a  halo 
of  romance  surrounded  a  line  of  heroes  from  Alexander  to 
Pyrrhus. 

A  world  that  revolves  round  an  Imperial  House  must  always 
pay  more  heed  to  pomps  and  pageants  than  a  Republic;  and 
a  world  that  fixes  its  eyes  on  private  life  must  care  greatly  for 
its  own  comfort.  Hence  we  trace  the  growth  of  luxury  at  this 
time:  in  household  trappings,  in  banquets,  in  dress  of  every 
kind.  Men  lived  in  a  woAd  of  artificial  culture,  veneered  with 
a  suave  and  polished  courtesy,  sparkling  with  gold  and  many 
colours,  heavy  with  perfume.  The  inevitable  reaction  followed 
upon  satiety,  and  these  pampered  exquisites  began  to  sigh  for 
the  simple  pleasures  of  the  good  old  days,  even  of  primitive 
times.  They  turned  with  relief  to  the  contemplation  of  the  fair 
beauty  of  Nature,  and  the  joys  of  rustic  life;  a  reaction  aided  for 
many  on  the  practical  side,  as  Mahaffy  notes,  by  the  dull 
landscapes  surrounding  them  in  Alexandria,  the  centre  of 
commercial  and  intellectual  activity. 

This  individualistic  movement,  further,  touches  not  only 
politics  and  social  life,  but  also  religion;  for  with  the  decline 
of  the  City-State,  came  also  the  decline  of  the  worship  of  the 
City-Gods,  and  in  proportion  as  the  individual  grew  in  impor- 
tance, men  came  more  and  more  to  seek  support  through  their 
own  efforts  rather  than  through  the  aid  of  deity.  The  old  Greek 
gods  have,  therefore,  little  meaning  for  the  Hellenistic  age,  and 
survive  mainly  in  formal  observances  promoted  by  the  king  for 
his  own  political  advantage.  Alexander  had  given  an  example  in 
this  respect;  he  had  set  out  for  Asiatic  conquest  under  the  aegis 
of  the  Gods  and  heroes  who  had  fought  for  Greece  at  Troy, 
and  had  supported  his  claim  to  world-supremacy  through  his 


THE  HELLENISTIC  AGE  7 

acclamation  as  son  of  Zeus  by  the  priests  of  Zeus-Ammon;  the 
Seleucids,  in  their  turn,  connected  their  Hne  with  ApoUo,'  the 
Ptolemies,  with  Heracles  and  Dionysus.     In  like  manner  the 
Hellenistic  rulers,  especially  the  Ptolemies,   were  careful  to 
consolidate  their  new  power  by  associating  it  with  cults  intro- 
duced under  their  auspices;  and  an  attempt  was  made  to  sup- 
port  the  worship  of  deities  hitherto  unknown  to  the  Greek 
worid,by  the  claim  of  the  gods  of  Egypt  and  Asia  that  the  old 
Greek  gods  were  but  incomplete  revelations  of  themselves. 
We  find,  therefore,  that  the  prevailing  reUgion,  Uke  the  life, 
was  cosmopolitan  in  composition;   the   union  of  races  was 
reproduced  in  the  syncretism  of  cults.   Yet,  as  in  secular  life, 
men  of  the  HeUenistic  worid  offered  honour  within  their  king- 
doms to  strangers  on  the  ground  of  personal  merit,  so,  in  the 
religious  worid,  men  paid  their  homage  at  times  to  strange  gods, 
whom  they  believed  to  be  invested  with  special  powers  to  meet 
their  individual  need.    From  this  we  trace  the  growing  cult  of 
Asclepius;  and  the  rapid  spread  of  the  worship  of  the  Great 
Mother,  of  Mithras,  Isis,  Osiris,  and  Serapis.     To  these  the 
individual  fled  to  gain  purification  from  his  burden  of  sin,  and 
his  consciousness  of  impurity;  individual  initiations  into  a  new 
form  of  worship  placed  him  in  the  path  of  peace  and  offered  to 
him  a  refuge  from  the  terrors  of  a  future  life.     It  was  these 
same  terrors,  inspired  by  the  uncertainty  of  Man's  ultimate  fate, 
that  led  him  to  consult  the  magicians  and  astrologers  who  had 
entered  the  Hellenistic  worid  from  Babylonia  and  Chaldaea, 
and  thus  to  gratify  as  weU  the  impulse,  springing  from  the 
consciousness  of  personality  and  pecuHar  destiny,  characteristic 
of  the  age.    The  practice  of  magic  rested  upon  the  behef  in  a 
general  sympathy  or  antipathy  reacting  through  all  Nature, 
living  and  dead,  in  a  subtle  and  aU-powerful  relation.     This 
creed,  which  found  its  mainspring  in  the  dual  theology  of  the 
Persians,  also  had  its  utilitarian  side:  for  evil,  in  the  practice 
of  sorcery;  for  good,  in  the  art  of  medicme.    The  cult  of  the  stars 
was  of  even  greater  moment:  for  they  are  divine  beings  influenc- 
ing mortal  lot  for  good  or  evil  as  they  wiU;  the  human  soul, 
itself  wrought  from  fire,  is  united  in  bonds  of  deepest  sympathy 
with  these  beings,  from  whom  it  came  and  unto  whom,  in  due 
course  of  time,  it  shall  return.     So,  as  Cumont  has  shown, 
believed  the  Chaldaeans  and  the  Persians;  and  their  doctrines 


8 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


THE  HELLENISTIC  AGE 


gained  wide  currency,  furthered  by  the  translation  into  Greek 
of  the  sacred  books  of  Zoroaster.  The  study  of  astrology  was 
thus  both  the  privilege  and  the  proper  business  of  the  man  who 
would  rise  to  higher  things,  and  Euhemerus  commends  the 
dwellers  in  Panchaea  for  their  worship  of  the  stars. 

These  stars,  once  heroes  of  the  earth,  are,  therefore,  living 
personalities;  and  indeed  personification  is  characteristic  of  the 
time.  Among  the  ideas  thus  embodied  none  is  more  prominent 
than  that  of  Tyche,  who  ruled  the  ebb  and  flow  of  Hellenistic 
accident.  The  cult  of  this  Hellenistic  Fortuna  was  largely  due 
to  the  Uepl  Hrxris  of  Demetrius  of  Phalerum,  who  as  Ferguson 
remarks,  "elevated  this  capricious  goddess  into  the  place  of 
Zeus  and  his  colleagues."  Hellenistic  also,  by  adoption,  is  the 
loftier  view  of  Destiny:  "from  the  Chaldaean  doctrine  of  the 
stars  and  their  unchanging  movements  sprang  the  belief  in 
immutable  Fate,  ruling  men  and  Gods  alike." 

Since,  then,  Hellenistic  gods  are  valued  throughout  their 
cosmopolitan  variety  for  what  they  bestow  upon  individual 
man,  it  is  not  difl&cult  to  understand  the  apotheosis  of  Hellenis- 
tic rulers.  The  gift  was,  indeed,  entirely  welcome;  Alexander, 
inspired  by  the  oracle  of  Zeus-Ammon,  had  prepared  the  way 
by  his  exaction  of  the  proskynesis;  the  Diadochi  gladly  cast 
the  glamour  of  this  worship  over  their  absolute  rule,  and  soft- 
ened the  force  of  this  rule  to  native-born  and  foreigner  alike 
by  the  assertion  of  the  monarch's  divinity  as  an  article  of 
religious  creed.  The  movement  was  greatly  helped  by  the 
traditional  position  of  the  Egyptian  Pharaoh  and  the  Oriental 
sovereigns;  yet  the  apotheosis  derives  its  claim  from  personal 
merit,  from  the  bestowal  of  blessings  which  win  for  the  human 
benefactor  the  worship  of  his  grateful  subjects.  The  titles 
assumed  by  the  Ptolemies  and  Seleucids  in  their  cults — 
coyrijfi,  tijepyk-njs — show  the  working  of  this  claim;  so  rational,  in 
fact,  was  the  Hellenistic  idea  of  deification  that  Ferguson  can 
state  "the  apotheosis  of  Alexander  was  grounded  in  impiety, 
in  disbelief  of  the  supernatural  altogether."  Not  only  Alexan- 
der and  the  Diadochi,  but  the  Greek  gods  themselves  were  once 
but  men,  who  had  won  deity  through  the  blessings  they  had 
given  to  their  fellows:  such  is  the  creed  which  Euhemerus 
establishes  in  his  island  of  Panchaea;  similarly,  in  the  work  of 


Hecataeus,  kings  rise  to  godhead  because  they  have  advanced 
the  civilization  of  the  world  in  which  they  rule. 

From  religion  based  on  rationalism  we  come  to  philosophy, 
the  refuge  of  those  many  more  highly  educated  men  for  whom 
the  City-Gods  no  longer  were  of  moment,  and  who  refused  to 
quell  their  forebodings  in  orgiastic  cults.    The  philosophy  of  the 
time  reflected  the  main  features  of  its  practical  life.    Its  schools 
were  as  various  as  the  cosmopolitan  races  of  the  Hellenistic  age; 
and  Mahaffy  well  describes  this  feature  in  its  ultimate  develop- 
ment: "GraduaUy,  then,  at  this  period,  not  only  from  the 
influence  of  Rome,  which  required  practical  lessons  without 
subtlety,  but  also  from  internal  causes,  from  the  decay  of  earnest 
faith  in  speculation,  of  earnest  faith  in  the  aims  of  practical  life, 
eclecticism,  the  creed  of  weary  minds,  laid  hold  of  the  Hellenistic 
world.     Carneades  had  not  only  shattered  all  the  remaining 
dogmatism  by  his  brilliant  polemic,  but  he  had  laid  down  as  his 
highest  principle  mere  probability,  so  that  there  was  no  reason 
why  the  researches  of  any  set  of  men  might  not  contain  some 
approximate  truth.    And  as  the  doctrines  might  be  culled  from 
any  school,  so  the  men  who  taught  them  might  hail  from 
any  country.     Hellenism  had  been  wide  enough  in  former 
generations;  we  now  seem  to  approach  an  even  wider  cosmo- 
politanism."   In  each  sect  the  individual  was  responsible  for 
his  own  progress  toward  the  highest  good,  and  was  conscious  of 
an  individual  mission  to  help  others  on  his  way.    Personality, 
therefore,  was  a  question  of  absorbing  interest  to  philosophers, 
as  to  men  of  affairs;  the  head  of  the  Peripatetic  School  himself 
takes  minute  pains  to  classify  in  scientific  fashion  the  characters 
of  the  men  he  meets.    A  cosmopolitan  community  of  ideals  and 
interests,  not  kinship  of  blood,  united  all  men  in  Zeno's  State; 
and  women,  as  well  as  men,  in  that  indifference  which  assigned 
to  both  sexes  a  uniform  dress.     The  Hellenistic  philosopher 
strove  to  gain  efficiency;  for  the  ambition  to  perform  with  all 
possible  ability  and  care  one's  own  task  in  life— r^  ^avroi>— had 
been  the  teaching  of  philosophy  from  the  time  of  Plato.    In  the 
days  of  loss  of  independence  and  civic  rights,  philosophers,  too,, 
turned  men's  thoughts  to  private  matters;  dTpayfjuxrvvrj  was 
the  attitude  of  Epicurus  and  his  disciples  toward  public  life; 
the  Sceptic  could  take  little  interest  m  State  questions,  inas- 


! 


10 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


much  as  they  represented  to  him  only  probabilities,  the  exact 
nature  of  which  was  not  to  be  ascertained.  Euhemerus  and 
lambulus  reflected  the  prevailing  pessimism  on  the  one  hand, 
the  desire  of  the  unusual  on  the  other,  in  their  strange  Utopian 
tales.  Epicurus  found  highest  happiness  in  the  cult  of  friend- 
ship; Love,  an  ever-recurrent  theme  in  the  study  of  human 
character,  from  Plato  onward  occupied  the  minds  and  writings 
of  every  School.  The  Cynic  despised  convention  and  turned  all 
his  thoughts  toward  aurApK€ia,  self-sufficing  joy  in  the  simple  life 
ruled  by  Nature,  contrasted  with  which  all  transient  history 
seemed  vain.  The  Stoic,  indeed,  took  part  in  public  life;  but 
only  with  the  consciousness  that  he  must  of  necessity  fall  short 
of  his  ideal,  the  life  in  accord  with  the  Law  uniting  and  ruling 
every  part  of  the  universe  in  the  great  World-Harmony  which  is 
the  outward  expression  of  God.  And  it  is  in  this  creed  of  the 
Stoics  that  Hellenistic  philosophy  reaches  its  highest  level, 
embodying  as  it  does  the  character  of  Hellenistic  life.  Zeus 
reigns  supreme  over  the  lesser  deities,  who  in  their  place  find 
individual  expression  in  the  component  parts  of  the  World- 
whole;  his  beauty  revealed  in  Nature  is  meet  for  worship,  as 
Clean thes  worshipped  it:  his  word  is  the  will  of  Fate.  In  the 
Harmony  which  is  the  body  of  Zeus  all  men  are  brethren,  knit 
together  in  a  common  bond  of  universal  law  and  order.  And  yet 
only  the  individual,  who  through  the  struggle  of  constant 
progress  finally  succeeds  in  identifying  himself  with  Nature,  that 
is,  with  God,  can,  by  perfect  obedience  to  His  will,  attain  the  goal 
of  real  satisfaction.  His  life  is  free  from  extravagance  because 
Nature  is  essentially  reasonable  and  has  no  place  for  artificiality 
or  waste  of  energy;  his  advance  is  consciously  wrought  by  the- 
continual  choosing  of  the  better  thing.  Divination  and  oracles 
guide  his  steps  because  of  "the  harmony  which  binds  all  phe- 
nomena, the  event  foretokened  with  the  omen  or  word  that  f ore- 
teUs."  But  only  few  men,  such  as  Heracles,  had  ever  realized 
this  ideal,  and  Heracles  found  Godhead  for  his  reward;  other 
men  remained  on  the  lower  plane,  all'  classed  together  as  fools. 
As,  therefore,  the  monarch  rises  in  his  single  pre-eminence,  the 
hope  of  all  his  subjects,  so  the  Sapiens  is  the  hope  of  those  who 
seek  to  rise  to  union  with  God;  the  final  regeneration  of  the  world 
lies  in  the  reign  of  the  Sapiens-Monarch,  who  shall  unite  his 
people  under  the  law  of  Nature's  truth.    This  ideal  kingdom 


THE  HELLENISTIC  AGE 


11 


Aristotle  had  already  foreshadowed  for  his  pupil  in  his  dream  of 
City-States,  each  ruled  by  a  perfect  king.  Alexander's  World- 
kingdom,  based  not  only  upon  Oriental  precedent,  but  also  on 
Stoic  faith,  foreshadowed  to  the  Stoic  mind  the  coming  of  that 
universal  reign  of  wisdom,  wherein  alone  the  varied  discords 
among  men  could  be  stilled  in  perfect  harmony  under  the 
guidance  of  Fate,  the  Word  of  God. 


INFLUENCE  OP  HELLENISTIC  LIFE  AND  LITERATURE  13 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Influence  of  Hellenistic  Life  and  Literature  (A) 

Such  were,  briefly  told,  the  main  features  which  character- 
ized the  Hellenistic  Age;  how  far  does  their  spirit  yet  live  in  the 
epic  work  of  Vergil? 

In  keeping  with  the  stress  laid  in  the  Hellenistic  world 
upon  the  individual  self,  is  the  absence  in  narrative  poetry, 
Hellenistic  or  written  under  Hellenistic  influence,  of  the  child- 
like impersonality  of  the  Homeric  narrative,  and  the  fresh 
spontaneity  of  Homeric  characters.  The  poet  and  his  people 
inevitably  turn  their  thoughts  inward  upon  themselves;  the 
whole  atmosphere  is  intensely  self-conscious.  The  Ciris  and 
the  Culex  show  this  spirit  in  marked  degree,  deepened  as  it  is 
by  the  self-consciousness  of  untried  youth.  In  the  Ciris  Vergil 
devotes  a  whole  preface  of  forty-seven  lines  to  himself,  his 
ambitions  and  his  doings;  in  the  Culex  ten  lines  of  personal 
import  precede  the  invocation,  and  the  poet  drags  himself  away 
at  last  from  telling  his  desire  for  Octavius*  glory,  with  the 
words — sed  nos  ad  coepta  feramur.  In  the  Aeneidy  he  is  still 
self-conscious,  but  he  has  learned  to  confine  self-expression  to  a 
brief  touch  here  and  there,  which  is,  after  all,  due  not  so  much 
to  the  remembrance  of  his  own  personality,  as  of  himself  as  the 
responsible  poet  of  Rome.  In  the  lines  handed  down  by  Dona- 
tus  and  Servius,  Aeneid  I,  la- Id,  we  find  a  touch  of  personal 
history  which  Unks  present  to  past  in  Vergil's  life;  in  like 
manner  present  is  linked  with  past  in  the  opening  of  the  Ciris, 
and  present  with  future  in  that  of  the  Culex,  Ennius,  also, 
opens  his  Annales  with  a  personal  touch,  borrowed,  we  may 
believe,  from  Callimachus.  There  is  a  distinction  between  the 
admission  of  this  element  in  the  opening  of  an  historical  epic, 
and  such  obtrusion  of  his  own  personality  as  Hesiod  naturally 
makes  in  beginning  a  didactic  treatise  addressed  to  his  offending 
brother.  At  times  the  Hellenistic  writer  of  epic  or  epyUion 
addresses  himself,  or  his  characters,  or  his  readers.^  Callimachus 

>This  is,  of  course,  part  of  rhetorical  tradition:  Longinus,  De  Sublim. 
XXVI. 

12 


interrupts  his  story  of  Acontius  and  Cydippe  to  rebuke  himself; 
Callimachus,  Apollonius,  and  Vergil  in  the  Ciris,  address  those 
of  whom  they  are  writing;*  the  Aeneid  frequently  shows  the 
same  practice,  and  passages  occur  in  which  persons  mentioned 
in  description  are  directly  invoked.  Direct  address  to  the 
reader  is  a  feature  of  ecphrasis  found  in  the  poetry  of  Apollonius 
and  of  Moschus,  and  in  the  Aeneid;  the  Homeric  description  of 
AchiUes'  shield,  on  the  other  hand,  does  not  contain  this  detail. 
Even  more  marked  is  the  Hellenistic  poet's  habit  of  interrupting 
his  narrative  with  his  own  reflections.  Apollonius  bursts  into 
pity  at  the  fate  of  the  women  of  Lesbos,  or  into  an  indignant 
accusation  of  pitiless  Love;  he  laments  that  we  men  ever  suffer 
joy  mingled  with  pain  and  lie  at  the  mercy  of  terrors  unknown. 
Theocritus  utters  his  lament  for  the  temerity  of  lovers  or  voices 
his  thought  on  religion.     Vergil  is  very  sorry  for  Scylla: 

omnia,  quae  retinere  gradum  cursusque  morari 
possent,  o  tecum  vellem  tua  semper  haberes! 

He  grieves  over  the  fall  of  Pallas,  pities  men's  ignorance  and 
folly  in  prosperity.  A  similar  detail  appears  in  the  use  of  the 
single  epithet,  for  which  there  is  indeed  precedent  in  Homer. 
Yet  it  is  of  interest  to  mark,  in  the  later  poets,  a  sympathy  with 
their  characters,  shown  in  the  selection  of  these  epithets;  it  is  with 
sympathy,  I  think,  that  Callimachus  writes  ctx^tXios  of  the  victims 
of  Artemis'  wrath  and  of  the  rash  Teiresias:  so  Apollonius 
of  Medea;  so,  too,  Catullus  and  Vergil  write  such  words  as 
infdix  or  miser  heu!  or  visu  miserabile  in  descriptions  of  their 
folk  which  come  from  the  authors  themselves.' 

But  far  more  self-conscious  than  even  the  poet  himself  are 
the  characters  on  his  stage,  men  and  gods  alike.  The  Medea  of 
Apollonius,  Simaetha,  and  the  Maid  of  the  Grenfell  Fragment 
find  their  Latin  counterparts  (if  we  exclude  Dido)  in  this  respect 
in  Ariadne,  Scylla,  and  Amata;  Juno  views  herself  objectively 
in  the  first  and  in  the  seventh  Jbook  of  the  Aeneid,  as  does  Arte- 
mis in  the  hymn  addressed  to  her;  both  Vergil  and  Callimachus 
use,  on  one  occasion,  the  objective  proper  name  instead  of  the 
first  personal  pronoun  in  such  speech.'     So  Polyphemus  in 

*  See  Jackson,  Harvard  Studies  in  Classical  Pkihlogy,  XXIV  (1913),  p.  49. 

*  Aen.  If  4Sf.  Juno  soliloquizes: 

et  quisquam  numen  lunonis  adorat 
praeterea,  aut  supplex  aris  imponat  honorem? 


Nl 


At 


14 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  LIFE  AND  LITERATURE  15 


Theocritus'  eleventh  idyll  consciously  reviews  his  own  good 
and  bad  points,  and  even  breaks  out  into  exhortation 
addressed  to  himself.  Medea  speaks  of  herself  with  pity:  the 
heroines  of  the  Latin  epyllion  do  the  same,**  so,  too,  does  Juno, 
baffled  in  her  design,  Amata  in  her  rage,  and  Evander  in  his 
sorrow.  Here,  also,  each  character,  in  a  higher  or  lower  degree, 
according  to  his  ability,  is  aware  of  the  self  he  represents  and  is 
to  realize.  All  depends  upon  individual  merit;  as  the  Hellenistic 
monarch,  as  the  Roman  Augustus  held  his  rule  through  the  merit 
of  his  success,  so  the  Juno  of  the  Aeneid  fears  for  her  power  if 
unsupported  by  triumph  visible  before  the  eyes  of  her  worship- 
pers. One  of  the  most  forcible  similes  of  the  Aeneid  pictures  a 
vast  and  seething  multitude  quelled  into  silence  by  the  strength 
of  one  man's  overruling  personality.  The  same  belief  in  a 
supreme  destiny  to  be  won  by  peculiar  merit,  which  inspired 
Alexander^  and  Augustus,  fills  the  heart  of  Vergil's  chief  heroes. 
Tumus,  relying  on  his  own  might,  indignantly  hurls  back  the 
reproach  of  Drances—'Tulsus  ego?"— Aeneas  bids  his  son  look 
to  himself,^  and  bids  the  dying  Lausus  seek  solace  in  the  thought 
that  it  is  the  great  Aeneas  who  has  dealt  the  mortal  stroke; 
the  height  of  self-consciousness  is  reached  in  the  words  of 
this,  VergiPs  hero: 

sum  plus  Aeneas,  raptos  qui  ex  hoste  penates 
classe  veho  mecum,  fama  super  aethera  notus. 

The  corresponding  words  of  Odysseus — IX,  19,  20: 

itfjk  'OSinrevs  \aepTi6.drjs,  ds  ircuri,  d6\ouriy 
iivOpcjiroun  /iteXw,  Kal  nev  K\kos  ohpavbv  ticei : 


Call.  Artem.  18  f.  Artemis  asks  of  Zeus: 

bin  hk  fjLoi  <^p€a  iravra'    t6\iv  Si  /not  i^vriva  veifMP, 
^vTLPa  Xps'    CTapp6v  yiip  8t  'Apre^ui  Sxttv  jcdrcuru'. 
103  f.    The  poet  narrates  of  Artemis: 

i^aTripTji  5'lra^es  re  Kal  dp  ttotI  Ovfidp  tetireSf 
tovtS  K€p  'Apri/xiSoi  vp<ar6.ypiop  S.^u>p  etiy. 

*  Jackson,  op.  cit.j  p.  49. 

»  Mahaflfy,  Greek  Life  and  Thought,'^  1896,  p'.  33:  "It  may  be  said  that  he 
(i.e.,  Alexander)  had  full  confidence  in  his  fortune,  and  that  the  king's  valour 
gave  tremendous  force  to  the  charge  of  his  personal  companions." 

•  So,  indeed,  do  Hector  and  Ajax:  but  cf.  with  Aeneas'  words  those  of 
Hector  (//.  VI,  479  f .) : 

KaL  vork  ris  etxoi  "xaTpis  7' We  voKKbp  6.ntipup" 
U  rokkfxov  &pU»vTa  .   .   . 


show  nothing  of  Aeneas'  burden  of  responsibiHty  for  the  ful- 
filling  of  his  destiny. 

Vergil,  then,  in  the  Aeneid,  reflects  both  directly  and 
indirectly,  the  self-consciousness  of  the  great  men  of  Hellenistic 
days,  while  Roman  History  was  itself  running  a  course  resem- 
bling  that  of  Hellenistic  Greece  in  that  the  rule  of  the  people  was 
passing  into  the  hands  of  one  man.  Here,  too,  in  Rome  the 
Emperor  was  supreme,  and  under  his  power  men  were  levelled 
in  uniform  subjection.  Within  this  despotism  literature  became 
the  vehicle  of  the  praise,  not  simply  of  Rome,  but  of  the  Caesar 
and  of  Rome  as  led  by  him.  The  Emperor  promoted  the 
cause  of  letters  by  his  personality,  set  with  a  halo  of  glory  in 
the  centre  of  all,  and  by  the  material  gifts  which  encouraged  and 
often  made  possible  the  works  of  his  literary  circle.  As  the  old 
free  initiative  of  the  Greek  7r6Xt$  had  waned,  so  the  old  free  spirit 
of  the  Roman  RepubUc  no  longer  breathed  in  the  Imperial 
literature. 

nil  nimium  studeo,  Caesar,  tibi  velle  placere, 
nee  scire  utrum  sis  albus  an  ater  homo: 

is  very  difiFerent  from  deus  nobis  haec  otia  fecit.    The  Aeneid  is  a 
Court  poem,  dedicated  to  the  glory  of  Rome  under  one  man's 
rule.     Thus  wrote  Callimachus  and  Theocritus  in  praise  of 
Ptolemy.     But  the  Aeneid,  like  the  Georgics,  in  so  far  as  it 
concerns  the  Emperor,  does  not  merely  glorify  him.    Mahaffy 
notes,  with  regard  to  Callimachus,  that  "the  adroit  allusions  to 
Ptolemy  in  these   (i.e.,   CaUimachus')  hymns  were  not  mere 
flattery— they  are  intended  to  commend  to  the  people  of  Argos, 
Delos,  Ephesus,  Cnidos,  as  well  as  to  the  many  Greeks  as- 
sembled at  Alexandria,  the  benefits  of  a  close  alliance  with,  if  not 
of  submission  to,  the  throne  of  Egypt. ''^    So  we  may  think  that 
Augustus  hoped  by  the  Aeneid  to  foster  a  spirit  of  Imperial 
community  among  his  subjects  of  many  races,  as  the  Georgics 
had  stimulated  the  lagging  energy  of  his  veterans  for  the  tiUing 
of  their  lands.    Warde  Fowler  sees  this  effort  in  the  catalogue  of 
Book  VII;  here  "the  Roman  poet  set  himself  to  support  with 
all  his  gifts  the  definite  Italian  policy  of  Augustus.  .  .  .    This, 
I  think,  was  the  poet's  primary  motive. "»    The  highest  attain- 

'  Op.  cU.,  p.  273. 

•  Virgil's  Gathering  of  the  Clans,  1916,  p.  28. 


Ml 

'3^ 


16 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


ment  of  Vergil  in  this  direction  is  well  summed  up  by  Conway: 
"And  when  it  is  said  that  Horace  and  Vergil  praised  too  highly 
and  too  soon  what  Augustus  accomplished,  let  me  suggest  to 
you  that  it  would  be  truer  to  say  that  they  both  dictated  and 
inspired  it.  We  owe  it  to  them  that  for  all  time  the  notion  of 
supreme  power,  the  power  of  an  actual  monarch,  not  of  a 
dreamland  body  of  philosophers,  was  identified  with  transcend- 
ent but  practical  goodness,  with  beneficent  toil,  of  which  the 
whole  world  was  the  province."'  In  truth  we  have  travelled 
far  by  this  time  from  those  grateful  praises  of  a  patron  which 
the  Cfdex  and  the  Eclogues  tell. 

Aside  from  this  direct  influence,  these  signs  of  the  day  are 
reflected  indirectly  in  various  details  of  Vergil's  work.  All  the 
hope  of  the  Trojans  is  centred  in  Aeneas;  it  is  only  of  Aeneas 
that  Palinurus  thinks  when  tempted  by  persuasive  Sleep. 
Aeneas  sends  none  other,  he  declares,  than  his  very  Self  to  sue  for 
the  help  of  Evander;  the  Trojans,  though  longing  sore  for  battle, 
may  not  leave  their  walls  in  the  absence  of  their  king.  "There 
are  no  parties  among  the  Trojans.  They  have  no  politics  but 
loyalty  to  their  prince.  This  means  a  certain  lack  of  interest. 
The  Trojans  generally  .  .  .  'want  physiognomy.'  Like  the 
Romans  under  the  later  Emperors,  they  lack  initiative;  they 
are  apt  to  be  rather  helpless,  almost  spiritless,  when  without 
their  prince;  and  the  life  of  the  nation  is  summed  up  in  the 
prince."^°  Nor  is  Aeneas  lacking  in  royal  state.  He  is  repeatedly 
spoken  of  as  rex;  "like  an  Alexander  he  dots  the  world  with 
his  foundations";"  his  son,  "fairer  than  all  other  Trojan 
youths,"  is  accompanied  by  the  paat.\ucol  iraiSes  and  entrusted 
to  the  care  of  a  paedagogus}^  The  land  owned  by  Latinus 
{Aen.  IX,  274;  XI,  316)"  corresponds  to  the  royal  demesne  of 
the  Ptolemies.    The  diplomacy  for  which  Hellenistic  kings  were 


» "Horace  as  Poet  Laureate"  in  "Falernian  Grapes,"  ed.  Rhys  Roberts, 
1917,  p.  9. 

10  Glover,  Studies  in  Virgil,'^  1912,  p.  230.  Cf.  Nettleship,  Lectures  and 
Essays,  1886,  Suggestions  Introductory  to  a  Study  of  the  Aeneid,  p.  103:  "It 
is  instructive  to  observe  the  similarity  of  language  in  which  Aeneas  is  spoken  of 
in  the  first  and  the  Roman  nation  in  the  sixth  book"  {Aen.  I,  263;  VI,  851). 

"  Glover,  ibid.,  p.  228. 

12  Aen.  V,  548  f.;  569;  IX,  647  flf.;  cf.  the  "rectores  imperatoriae  iuventae" 
of  Nero's  day. 

1*  Cf.  Lersch,  Antiquitates  Vergilianae,  1843,  p.  28. 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  LIFE  AKD  LITERATURE  17 

justly  famed  reappears  in  the  careful  ponderings  of  Latinus," 
who,  as  the  ambassador,  Ilioneus,  stands  before  him,  considers 
the  splendid  gifts,  and  realizes  the  importance  of  a  son-in-law 
who  shall  perpetuate  his  race  in  manliness  and  might  of  conquest 
over  all  the  Latin  world.  Not  piety  alone  is  working  here.  So 
Aeneas,  with  similar  policy,  shows  kindness  to  the  wretched 
subjects  of  Latinus.  Gercke  has  remarked  that  the  great  War  is 
one  of  kings  and  their  quarrels,  not  of  peoples:  so  the  Diadochi 
fought  for  their  thrones."  The  subjects  of  Latinus  try  to  make 
peace  (XII,  584) ;  and  Aeneas  himself  answers  the  envoys  (XI, 
113  f.): 

nee  bellum  cum  gente  gero:  rex  nostra  reliquit 
hospitia  et  Turni  potius  se  credidit  armis. 

The  honour  of  the  king  must  be  pre-eminent;  and  therefore 
Vergil  carefully  absolves  Latinus  from  blame  in  transferring 
his  support."  At  the  same  time,  supreme  as  the  kingly  fame 
stands,  Aeneas  in  giving  the  title  of  socii  to  his  companions 
reminds  us  of  the  diplomatic  friendships  of  the  Hellenistic  and 
the  Augustan  courts.  Occasionally,  too,  here  also  is  seen  a 
touch  of  the  old  independence  of  spirit.  Latinus  must  yield; 
Mezentius  is  dethroned;  even  Aeneas,  as  he  confesses  to  Tar- 
chon,  feels  the  instability  of  the  aflFairs  of  men.  We  remember, 
in  passing,  the  attitude  of  Vergil  and  Horace  to  their  royal 
master. 

In  keeping  with  this  importance  of  individual  life,  is  the 
absorbing  interest  of  the  Hellenistic  poet  and  his  successors 
in  personal  detail.  To  this  interest  we  may  trace  in  part  the 
care  with  which  Vergil  gives  us  touches  descriptive  of  the 
dress  of  his  heroes,  the  surroundings  in  which  they  live,  natural 
or  artificial,  their  very  form  and  face.  The  pictures  of  Troy's 
great  men  which  comfort  Aeneas  on  his  first  landing  in  Cartha- 
ginian territory  are  directly  due  to  the  Hellenistic  custom  of 
introducing  real  portraits  in  historical  panel  scenes.     Dido's 

"As  of  the  kmgs  of  Apollonius:  Mahaflfy,  op.  cit.,  p.  292;  Couat,  La 
Poisie  alexandrine,  1882,  p.  324. 

"  Die  Entstehung  der  Aeneis,  1913,  p.  108. 

*•  (a)  No  very  definite  agreement  had  been  made  with  Tumus  regarding 
Lavmia;  he  was  only  wooing  her,  as  were  many  others  (VII,  54  f.) :  (b)  the 
oracle  bade  Latinus  jom  Aeneas,  and  he  was  a  pious  king:  (c)  the  Latms  forced 
the  war:  (d)  he  held  aloof;  see  Gercke,  op.  cU.,  pp.  108  flf.;  Heinze,  VirgUs 
Epische  Technik,*  1915,  pp.  174  flf. 


18 


HELLENISTIC  INTLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


palace  boasts  similar  portraits,  and  its  other  adornments  are 
carefully  enumerated;  the  havens  in  which  the  Trojans  land 
are  constantly  pictured,  not  only  from  delight  in  natural 
scenery,  but  as  a  background  for  the  all-important  human  ac- 
tion therein;  the  gorgeous  robes  of  Dido,  the  wild  garb  of 
Camilla's  childhood,  the  splendid  armour  of  heroes,  the  rustic 
equipment  of  Evander,  are  all  in  turn  faithfully  noted. 

But  there  is  another  reason  for  study  of  detail.  As  in 
Hellenistic  days  the  transferring  of  the  political  energies  of 
independent  citizens  to  the  controlled  work  of  a  monarchical 
system  set  free  many  men,  who,  relieved  of  liturgies  and  civic 
duties,  even  encouraged  by  royal  munificence,  devoted  them- 
selves to  study,  so  it  was  in  Rome  when  the  turmoil  of  Republi- 
can struggle  gave  way  to  the  peace  of  an  ordered  land.  Ptolemy 
established  the  great  Museion  and  presided  over  a  circle  of 
eager  scholars;  Augustus  founded  the  Library  in  the  temple 
of  Apollo,  and  called  to  the  service  of  art  the  flower  of  the  Gol- 
den Age.  The  result  amid  the  Hellenistic  poets  was  the  growing 
up  of  a  new  habit  of  observation  of  detail,  which  tended  to  enrich 
and  enliven  all  their  story.  Not  only  the  beautiful,  but  the 
ordinary,  even  the  repulsive,  were  examined  and  described  in 
this  zealous  representing  of  reality.  Herondas  described  the 
daily  life  of  his  time;  Callimachus  told  of  the  poor  old  woman 
who  gave  welcome  to  Theseus  in  her  cottage,  and  of  the  rustics 
who  acclaimed  his  feat:  told,  in  homely  language,  the  care  of 
Artemis  for  her  horses  and  of  Rhea  for  her  new-born  child. 
Theocritus  described  the  daily  life  of  Alcmene  and  her  babes, 
or  of  Gorgo  and  Praxinoe.  This  same  passion  for  realistic  detail 
appeared  in  Hellenistic  art  in  the  conception  of  portraits,  as 
that  of  Homer.  "But  when"  wrote  Vernon  Lee  "Greek  art  had 
run  its  course,  when  beauty  of  form  had  well-nigh  been  ex- 
hausted or  begun  to  pall,  certain  artists,  presumably  Greeks, 
but  working  for  Romans,  began  to  produce  portrait  work  of 
quite  a  new  and  wonderful  sort.  .  .  .  And  the  secret  of  the 
beauty  of  these  few  Graeco-Roman  busts,  which  is  also  that  of 
Renaissance  portrait  sculpture,  is  that  the  beauty  is  quite  dif- 
ferent in  kind  from  the  beauty  of  Greek  ideal  sculpture,  and 
obtained  by  quite  diflFerent  means.""    Of  similar  spirit  are  the 

^"^"Euphorion,"  II,  p.  24;  quoted  by  Mrs.  Strong,  Roman  Sculpture,  1907, 
p.  347.    Baumgarten,  Die  heUen,  rihn.  Kidtur^  1913,  p.  449,  observes  "the 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  LIFE  AND  LITERATURE  19 

natural  backgrounds  which  replace  the  conventional  settings 
of  older  Greece.  The  portrayal  of  still  life  and  scenes  of  the 
genre  type  is  especially  associated  with  Hellenistic  times,  and  in 
the  hands  of  Peiraecus  and  his  school  must  have  widely  influ- 
enced later  work. 

This  tendency  to  exactness  the  young  Roman  poet  of  late 
Repubhcan  days  first  receives  as  part  of  his  heritage  from 
Alexandrian  life  and  writings,  then  cultivates  in  his  own  life  of 
leisurely  watching  of  men  and  things.  We  come  upon  it  in 
Catullus  and  in  the  early  work  of  Vergil,  where  at  times  it 
offends  us  by  its  untimely  appearance,  and  mars  the  effect  of 
the  whole.  The  description  of  birds  and  frogs  in  the  Culex  is 
scarcely  poetical: 

et  quaqua  geminas  avium  vox  obstrepit  aures, 
hac  querulas  referunt  voces,  quis  nantia  limo 
corpora  lympha  fovet  .  .  . 

Neither  are  the  details  of  the  metamorphosis  of  ScyUa,  which 
remind  us  of  the  similar  description  that  spoOs  Horace's  epi- 
logue; nor  the  exact  definition  of  the  spot  where  the  culex  stung 
the  shepherd— g«a  diducla  genas  pandebanl  lumina—.  In  like 
manner  Catullus  spoils  the  picture  of  Ariadne's  passionate 
misery,  as  she  dashes  wildly  into  the  surf: 

mollia  nudatae  tollentem  tegmina  surae. 

In  the  Aeneid  Vergil  aUows  us  to  imagine  the  process  of  a 
metamorphosis,  or  the  details  that  add  only  frigid  interest  to 
the  story.  But  his  art  embraces  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men, 
and  he  willingly  lingers  in  the  description  of  simple  scenes  that 
he  may  bring  them  vividly  before  his  readers:  the  stages  by 
which  the  Trojans  build  a  fire  and  bake  their  bread;  the  life  of 
the  country  king,  Evander;  the  play  of  the  boys  spinning  their 
top,  as  they  did  in  Alexandria  in  the  time  of  CaUimachus.  The 
fisherman  Menoetes,  who  knew  not  rich  gifts,  recalls  the  toilers 
of  the  sea  in  Theocritus;  from  Apollonius  comes  the  glimpse  of 
the  woman  who  rouses  the  sleeping  embers  of  her  fire  that  even 

difference  between  the  relief  of  the  Ara  Pac.  Aug.  and  that  of  the  Parthenon  of 
which  the  Ara  superficiaUy  reminds  one.    The  figures  on  the  Parthenon  frieze 
are  ideal,  those  of  the  Ara  are  of  men,  women  and  chUdren  of  the  Imperial 
Court  mtheu:  actual  dress."   See  also  Ernest  Gardner,  Greek  Sculpture^  1915 
pp.  559  f.  '  * 


t 


(( 


20 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


by  night  she  may  toil  to  support  her  needy  family.  The  de- 
scriptions of  scenery — framed  by  est  Ivcus — and  of  dress,  recall 
the  miniatures  of  Hellenistic  painting. 

Realism,  however,  paints  the  beautiful  no  less  than  the 
humdrum  things  of  everyday;  and  here,  too,  the  youth  in 
Vergil  is  father  to  the  man.  The  Aeneid  sparkles  with  the 
descriptive  adjective,  introduced  just  where  it  may  attract  the 
eye  and  vivify  the  scene:  the  art  is  of  the  poet's  own  genius,  but 
has  been  trained  in  ways  of  skill  as  is  any  power  of  delineation. 
With  such  trained  art  Catullus  reproduces  the  moment  when 
Clodia  breaks  upon  his  solitude  as  he  waits  :^^ 

quo  mea  se  molli  Candida  diva  pede 
intulit  et  trito  fulgentem  in  limine  plantam 
innixa  arguta  constituit  solea. 

Vergil  pictures  for  us  Scylla,  now  dashing  after  her  ball,  as  it 
runs  to  and  fro,  unconscious  of  her  danger,  her  dress  flying  in 
the  wind;  now  sick  with  panic,  hardly  daring  to  breathe, 
creeping  at  midnight  down  the  stairs,  scissors  in  hand.  All  is 
dark  except  the  stars  twinkling  in  the  frosty  sky.  But  the  door 
creaks— just  as  Clodia's  slipper  did— it  is  all-important  for  the 
action  of  the  poem.  Examples  could  be  multiplied:  I  will  quote 
only  one  more  picture,  that  of  the  shepherd  and  his  flocks 
(C«/.  45ff.): 

propulit  e  stabulis  ad  pabula  laeta  capellas 
pastor,  et  excels!  montis  iuga  summa  petivit, 
florida  qua  patulos  velabant  gramina  colles. 
iam  silvis  dumisque  vagae,  iam  vallibus  abdunt 
corpora,  iamque  onmi  celeres  e  parte  vagantes 
tondebant  tenero  viridantia  gramina  morsu. 
scnipea  desertis  haerebant  ad  cava  ripis, 
pendula  proiectis  carpuntur  et  arbuta  ramis, 
densaque  virgultis  avide  labmsca  petuntur; 
haec  suspensa  rapit  carpente  cacumina  morsu 
vel  salicis  lentae  vel  quae  nova  nascitur  alnus, 
haec  teneras  fniticum  sentes  rimatur,  at  ilia 
imminet  in  rivi  prostantis  imaginis  undam. 

Already  in  the  neoteric  poets  wt  see  the  painting  of  colour 
and  sound  for  which  the  Odes  of  Horace  and  the  Aeneid  are 
famous."  Heinze  remarks  the  brightness  of  Book  V:  all  the 
earth  is  green  and  all  the  company  is  joyous  to  celebrate  the 

1*  Mr.  Glover  first  pointed  out  to  me  the  force  of  this  picture. 
"  See  Roiron,  £tude  sur  V imagination  auditive  de  VirgiUf  1908. 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  LIFE  AND  LITERATURE  21 

games.  So  Catullus,  by  a  similar  repetition  of  descriptive  adjec- 
tive, had  vividly  drawn  the  sea  flying  with  foam  .  .  .  ventosum 
.  .  .  aequor  (LXIV,  1.  12)  .  .  .  spumis  incanduit  unda  (1.  13) 
.  .  .  candenti  e  gurgite  (1.  14)  .  .  .  gurgite  cam  (1.  18);  or  the 
radiance  of  Peleus'  home,  decked  for  marriage  rites  .  .  .  ftU- 
genti  splendent  auro  atque  argento  (1.  44)  .  .  .  candet  ebur  (1.  45) 
collucent  pocula  (1.  45)  .  .  .  domus  gaudet  regali  splendida  gaza 
(1.  46);  or  the  blaze  of  Ariadne's  passion:  _/^a^raw/^fl  .  .  .  lumina 
11.  91,  92)  .  .  .  concepit  .  .  .  flammam  (1.  92)  .  .  .  exarsit 
tota  (1.  93).  In  the  second  pastoral  scene  of  the  Culex  (11.  98- 
156)  we  find  viridem  .  .  .  museum;  luco  .  .  .  virenti;  viridi 
.  .  .  in  herha;  viridi  pallor  e;  susurrantis  .  .  .  lymphae;  res  on- 
ante  susurro;  aura  susurrantis  .  .  .  venti;  together  with  seven 
lines  charged  with  sound: 

at  volucres  .... 

carmina  per  varios  edunt  resonantia  cantus. 
his  suberat  gelidis  manans  e  fontibus  unda, 
quae  levibus  placidum  rivis  sonat  acta  liquorem. 
et  quaqua  geminas  avium  vox  obstrepit  aures, 
hac  querulas  referunt  voces,  quis  nantia  limo 
corpora  lympha  fovet;  sonitus  alit  aeris  echo, 
argutis  et  cuncta  fremunt  fardore  cicadis. 

But  while  the  Hellenistic  spirit  devoted  itself  to  the  observa- 
tion of  life,  it  followed  no  less  eagerly  the  study  of  written 
records;  the  Alexandrians  have  ever  been  reproached  with  their 
learning.  Yet  in  itself,  the  love  of  study  is  excellent,  and  one 
recognizes  in  these  scholars  that  same  zeal  for  efficiency  which 
animated  all  who  sought  to  glorify  their  royal  patron.  So  the 
young  Vergil  would  gladly  write  a  lofty  poem  of  philosophy  to 
glorify  Messala,  but  his  power  is  not  ripe;  in  the  Culex  he 
promises  Octavius  a  more  worthy  offering  later  on: 

posterius  graviore  sono  tibi  musa  loquetur 
nostra,  dabunt  cum  maturos  mihi  tempora  fnictus, 
ut  tibi  digna  tuo  poliantur  carmina  sensu. 

The  declaration  that  a  task  is  too  great  for  one's  powers — the 
recusatio—is  indeed  part  of  the  literary  tradition  of  the  time, 
inherited  from  Alexandria.*^*  Horace  delights  in  it.  Catullus 
sends  his  gift  to  Allius  with  an  apology: 

hoc  tibi,  quod  potui,  confectum  carmine  munus: 

««Shorey,  ed.  Horace,  Car.  1916,  p.  162;  Reitzenstein,  Neue  Jahrb.,  XXI 
(1908),  p.  84. 


22 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


Vergil  makes  the  same  reflection: 

fortunati  ambo!    si  quid  mea  carmina  possunt, 
nulla  dies  umquam  memori  vos  eximet  aevo. 

The  effort  to  attain  the  highest  is  eminently  worth  while  for 
the  poet  who  holds  in  his  power  the  unique  gift  of  mindful  song. 
If  Horace  at  one  moment  deprecates  his  unworthy  Muse,  he 
is  usually  well  aware  of  the  value  of  his  words: 

non  ego  te  meis 
chartis  inomatum  silebo, 
totve  tuos  patiar  labores 
impune,  Lolli,  carpere  lividas 
obliviones: 

corresponds  exactly  to: 

non  ego  te,  Ligurum  ductor  fortissime  hello, 
transierim: 


or: 


nee  tu  carminibus  nostris  indictus  abibis, 
Oebale  .  .  . 


To  the  desire  of  attaining  excellence,  a  desire  springing 
obviously  from  his  own  character,  but  stimulated  by  his 
training,  is  due  the  care  with  which  Vergil  has  treated  many 
and  various  subjects  in  his  work.  It  is  instructive  in  this  con- 
nection to  compare  the  technical  details  concerning  the  customs 
and  armour  of  the  tribes  in  Vergil's  catalogue  with  the  lack  of 
technicality  in  the  Homeric  list  :*^  to  contrast  his  treatment  of 
the  healing  of  Aeneas  with  the  Homeric  tale  of  Glaucus,  or  his 
simile  of  the  activity  of  the  bees  with  that  of  the  Iliad  (II,  87  ff.) : 
to  note  his  acquaintance  with  details  of  agriculture,  astronomy, 
navigation;^  one  might  well  suppose  him  to  be  a  specialist  in 
many  crafts.  Suetonius  attests  his  devotion  "inter  cetera 
studia"  to  medicine,  mathematics,  and  law;  "eminent  lawyers 
have  admired  his  knowledge  of  their  profession;  agriculturists 
and  physicians  have  but  imitated  their  admiration  where  they 

^  Cf.  Ehrlich,  MitteHtalietij  Land  und  Leute  in  der  Aentide  Vergils,  1892. 

^  Royds,  The  Beasts^  Birds,  and  Bees  of  Virgilj  1914;  Prosper  Meniere, 
Etudes  mldicales  sur  les  poites  latins^  1858,  pp.  131  flf.;  Jal,  Virgilius  Nauticus, 
1861,  pp.  265  ff.;  Segebade,  Vergil  als  Seemann,  1895. 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  LIFE  AND  LITERATURE  23 

have  each  been  best  able  to  judge;  as  a  rhetorician  Macrobius 
prefers  him  to  Cicero. "»  "Ancient  commentators,"  remarks 
Sellar,  "have  drawn  attention  ...  to  the  exact  acquaintance 
which  Virgil  shows  with  the  minutiae  of  Pontifical  and  Augural 
lore."**  Such  scrupulous  care  to  speak  with  the  authority  of 
the  specialist  in  each  sphere  of  knowledge  is  in  complete  har- 
mony  with  the  scientific  spirit  of  the  Hellenistic  world.^^ 

In  his  early  efforts  Vergil  is  full  of  this  fresh  enthusiasm  for 
learning,  and  cannot,  as  the  neoterics  in  general,  forbear  to  give 
it  us.  The  list  of  subjects,  mythological  and  historical,  which 
he  might  have  chosen  instead  of  the  Cidex,  the  laboured  introduc- 
tion of  the  story  of  Agave,  and  the  fables  attached  to  the 
different  trees  in  the  shepherd's  resting  place,  all  savour  of 
Hellenistic  methods.  The  learned  epithet  meets  one  repeatedly. 
At  times  it  is  simply  conventional,  as  in  Carme's  laden  words: 

Gnosia  neu  Partho  contendens  spicula  comu 
Dictaeas  ageres  ad  gramina  nota  capellas! 

So  wrote  Horace  in  his  Odes.  The  Hellenistic  authors  loved  the 
unusual,  the  fanciful,  even  in  their  words:  and  at  times  Vergil's 
phrasing  might  merit  the  satire  of  Moliere.  Scylla  is  called 
"patris  miseri  patriaeque  sepulchrum";  the  sun  is  Hyperion, 
the  culex  is  introduced  as  "parvulus  umoris  alumnus"  without 
further  naming;  the  nurse  anxiously  inquires  of  her  charge: 

nam  qua  te  causa  nee  dulcis  pocula  Bacchi 
nee  gravidos  Cereris  dicam  contingere  fetus? 

The  word  "Ceres"  of  the  Aeneid,  on  the  other  hand,  simply 
replaces  "bread,"  according  to  common  usage. 

Even  the  Alexandrians,  however,  did  not  distribute  their 
learned  remarks  at  random.  Mackail  can  write  of  the  hymns 
of  Callimachus  as  marked  by  a  "fastidiousness,  by  an  mstinct 
for  rejection  which  almost  amounts  to  a  passion";  Catullus 
carefully  motivates  the  introduction  of  his  story  of  Ariadne. 
Throughout  the  Aeneid,  in  contrast  to  the  earlier  work,  this 
instinct  of  artistic  selection  is  to  be  observed.    Mirmont  points 

»  Prentiee,  The  Philosophical  Opinions  of  Vergil,  1859,  p.  7. 
"  Virga,»  1897,  p.  374. 

»  Even  so,  as  every  one  knows,  the  Georgics  borrowed  from  Aristotle, 
Nieander,  The<^hrastus,  Aratus,  and  Eratosthenes. 


i 


24 


HELLENISTIC  INTLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


out  cases  where  Vergil  deliberately  turns  material,  which  in 
ApoUonius  is  of  only  learned  interest,  to  the  greater  glory  of 
his  country:  as  in  the  tracing  of  the  Trojan  race  to  Crete,  and 
the  honour  done  to  the  cult  of  Cybele.  Aetiological  tales  are 
deftly  introduced:  the  tale  of  Hercules  and  Cacus  comes 
naturally  from  Evander,  as  does  the  description  of  the  Ludus 
Troiae  amid  the  sports  of  Anchises'  memorial  games,  or  the 
story  of  Hippolytus  which  enlivens  the  catalogue.  There  are 
numerous  scientific  details,  but  they  usually  serve  rather  to 
stimulate  than  annoy.  The  name  of  Byrsa  is  traced  to  the 
buirs  hide;  of  the  Lauren tes  to  the  laurel.  The  eponymous  hero 
is  sometimes  mentioned:  Romulus,  Capys,  Chaon;  and  the 
Latin  name  is  preserved  for  evermore  at  Juno's  urgent  prayer. 
That  matters  of  astronomy  should  be  introduced  is  not  surpris- 
ing in  view  of  Aratus'  wide  influence;  but,  like  Callimachus, 
Vergil  brought  his  scientific  notes  into  harmony  with  his  tale. 
It  is  entirely  natural  that  the  helmsman  Palinurus  should  scan 
at  midnight  the  stars  that  are  passing  in  the  silent  sky;  that 
Pallas,  in  his  bright  armour,  should  be  likened  to  Lucifer  as  it 
comes  from  the  ocean  and  drives  away  the  gloom;  that  the 
swing  and  clash  of  battle  should  remind  one  of  the  hailstorm 
that  rises  out  of  the  west  under  the  rain-bringing  Kids.  The 
song  of  lopas  recalls  Lucre tian  philosophy;  so  also  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  shade  that  personates  Aeneas: 

morte  obita  quales  fama  est  volitare  figuras, 
aut  quae  sopitos  deludunt  somnia  sensus. 

There  is  matter  historical:  the  founding  of  Ardea  by  Danae  or 
of  Patavium  by  Antenor,  and  the  tracing  of  the  lineage  of 
various  noble  houses;  geographical:  the  formation  of  the  strait 
between  Italy  and  Sicily,  the  accurate  description  of  the  fruitful 
flood  of  the  Nile,  the  definite  local  touch  which  marks  so  many 
of  Vergil's  similes;  philological:  the  Greek  derivation  of  Stro- 
phades,  the  changing  of  Camilla's  name.  Alexandrian,  as 
Apollonjus  shows,  is  the  frequent  epitTiet  which  in  Vergil  marks 
the  history  of  person  or  place.  Nor  does  the  love  of  the  strange 
and  novel  fail  to  leave  its  mark.  The  Hellenistic  metamorphosis 
appears  in  the  tale  of  the  changing  of  the  ships  into  nymphs;  in 
the  story  of  Polydonis,  which,  with  its  realistic  detail,  savours  of 
Hellenistic  /6vTapo7p<ii<^t,  who  dived  even  into  lowest  depths  of 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  LIFE  AND  LITERATURE  25 

society  in  search  of  some  new  picture;  in  the  reference  to  the 
changing  of  the  followers  of  Diomedes  into  birds,  and  to  Circe's 
transforming  of  Picus  into  a  woodpecker,  in  revenge  for  her 
slighted  love;  in  the  story  of  Cycnus,  changed  into  a  swan 
while  grieving  at  the  loss  of  his  loved  Phaethon.  The  last  two 
of  these  stories  are  told  in  greater  detail  in  that  storehouse  of 
Hellenistic  tales,  Ovid's  Metamorphoses;  the  story  of  Phaethon 
was  popular  among  the  Hellenistic  and  neoteric  poets.  The 
marvellous  attack  of  the  Harpies,  the  settling  of  Sleep  upon  the 
stern  of  Aeneas'  boat,  and  his  besprinkling  of  Palinurus  with 
drops  from  the  magic  branch,  all  find  their  counterpart  in 
ApoUonius. 

In  this  scholarly  current,  the  remembrance  of  primitive 
days  naturally  finds  a  place.  Sellar  long  ago  wrote  that  "the 
Alexandrian  Age  had  endeavoured  to  revive  an  interest  in  the 
heroic  adventure  of  early  or  mythical  times.  It  had  recognized 
the  principle  that  this  distant  background  was  essential  to  a 
poem  of  heroic  action.  .  .  ."»  Varro,  Dionysius  of  Halicarnas- 
sus,  and  Livy  eagerly  pursued  the  research  into  antiquities 
promoted  by  the  scholars  of  Alexandria;  Callimachus  "intro- 
duces old  myths  for  the  sake  of  artistic  contrast  and  of  giving 
the  glamour  of  historical  truth  to  his  narrative."  Vergil  con- 
stantly brings  forward  for  the  glory  of  Augustus  the  Trojan 
origin  of  the  Roman  race,  and  describes  the  celebrating  before 
Aeneas  of  the  Ludus  Troiae  which  Augustus  himself  reinstated, 
as  he  did  the  old  secular  games.  Alexander,  also,  had  scrupu- 
lously observed  the  ancient  religious  rites,  and  had  endeavoured 
to  revive  the  old  Greek  games  and  festivals.  Reverence  for  the 
past,  as  seen  in  the  appeal  to  authority,  especially  that  of 
tradition,  a  feature  so  marked  in  Hellenistic  poetry,  and  in 
Catullus,  appears  also  in  varied  form  throughout  the  Aeneid. 
Furthermore,  Vergil's  description  of  the  manners  of  the  primi- 
tive tribes  of  Italy  recalls  that  epic  on  the  second  Messenian 
War  by  Rhianus  of  Crete,  who  "had  made  special  researches 
into  the  local  antiquities  of  various  cities"  (Mahaffy,  Greek 
Life  and  Thought,^  p.  293).  But  the  old  myths  and  stories 
must  be  told  accurately;  and  the  Alexandrians,  as  Norden 
points  out,  were  keen  to  mark  the  correct  version  of  a  tradition.*' 

»0^.  ct^.,  p.  298. 

"Norden,  ed.  Aeneid  VI,«  1916,  p.  291;  cf.  Skutsch  on  this  Alexandrian 
characteristic  of  the  "author  of  the  Ciris,''  Aus  Vergils  FrUhzeit,  1901,  p.  80. 


26 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


He  compares  the  insistence  in  the  story  of  Maia  (A  en,  VIII, 
140)  with  KaibePs  example  in  Callimachus  (ad  Art.  172).  In 
the  story  of  Maia  Aeneas  confines  his  zeal  to  two  lines,  and  the 
detail  is  of  great  moment  to  the  occasion.  In  his  earlier  poems 
Vergil  can  delay  his  narrative  to  give  diflFering  versions  or 
possibilities.  The  various  stories  of  Scylla's  fate  are  recited; 
the  real  cause  is  assigned  to  Juno^s  anger  against  her;  the  ques- 
tion of  her  guilt  debated.  The  nurse  interrupts  her  lamentations 
on  her  daughter's  loss  to  discuss  the  theories  attending  that 
loss:  a  discussion  natural  in  its  place,  but  hardly  appropriate 
in  the  midst  of  an  attempt  to  console  another  girl,  Scylla, 
racked  with  acute  misery  of  mind  and  body.  In  the  Culex  the 
poet  must  tarry  to  wonder  what  induced  the  conquest  of  the 
serpent,  or  caused  the  storm  that  overcame  Ajax. 

For  here  we  see  that  intellectual  argument,  that  meticulous 
questioning  for  questioning's  sake,  in  which  the  Hellenistic 
soul  delighted,  and  the  memory  of  which  it  handed  down  to 
stimulate  its  successors.  And  if  debate  was  grateful  over 
matters  of  outward  accident,  it  was  doubly  welcome  when  it 
concerned  the  things  of  the  mind  or  the  heart.  So,  too,  Vergil, 
growing  up  amid  this  spirit  of  probing  into  inner  things,  inspired 
by  Euripides  and  by  Euripides'  followers,  cares,  above  all, 
for  the  psychology  of  his  tale.  And  whereas  in  Homer,  descrip- 
tive epithets  often  refer  to  the  outside  man,  as  well  as  to  his 
spirit,  in  the  Aeneid  the  phrases — pius  Aeneas^  fidus  Achates, 
bonus  A  cestes  y  or  magnanimus  V olcens  TditYitT  direct  our  thoughts 
t  o  the  inner  character.  Masterly  in  its  succinct  force  is  the 
portrait  of  Aeneas,  as  King,  Priest,  War-Lord,  drawn  in  two 
lines: 

rex  erat  Aeneas  nobis,  quo  iustior  alter, 
nee  pietate  fuit  nee  bello  maior  et  armis.^ 

It  is  significant,  too,  that  a  student  of  Callimachus  should  begin 
his  poem  with  the  appeal: 

Musa,  mihi  causas  memora  .. .  . 

The  Trojans,  as  they  see  the  blaze  of  Dido's  pyre,  discuss  its 
unhappy  cause;  the  poet  himself  discusses  the  motives  that  lead 
Nautes  to  give  his  counsel  regarding  the  Trojan  weaklings,  that 


Kunz,  Realien  in  VergUs  AeneiSj  1895,  p.  31. 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  LIFE  AND  LITERATURE  27 

influence  Latinus  to  welcome  Aeneas,  and  the  Rutuli  to  foUow 
Turnus.    Heinze  mentions  the  detaHed  motives  assigned  for  the 
pursuit  of  Chloreus  by  CamiUa  as  savouring  of  the  pragmatic 
historian,  and  characterizes  the  incident— that  of  Silvia's  stag— 
which  Vergil  introduced  into  tradition  for  the  more  immediate 
deriving  of  the  great  war,  as  distinctly  Hellenisric  in  nature. 
So  Scylla  had  been  ruined— by  the  careless  throwing  of  a  baU. 
And  as  the  triviality  of  outward  causes  of  great  happenings  may 
be  placed  by  the  artist  in  striking  contrast  with  the  description 
of  their  yield  of  tragedy,  so,  in  contrast  with  the  analysis  of  the 
workings  of  mind,  the  narrative  of  deeds  is  very  sUght.    The 
description  of  the  struggle  between  right  and  wrong  in  Medea's 
mind  is  of  much  greater  importance  to  ApoUonius  than  the  tell- 
ing of  the  deeds  which  foUow.    After  the  long  struggle  of  ScyUa 
comes  the  brief  statement  of  the  cutting  of  the  lock,  the  taking 
of  Megara,  the  punishment  of  the  giri:  then  foUows  further  an- 
alysis in  her  lament.    In  the  Aeneid  this  insight  into  the  human 
mind  reaches  its  clearest  expression  with  the  development  of 
the  poet's  own  experience  of  his  fellowmen.    The  most  stirring 
story  in  the  Aeneid— the  Fall  of  Troy— is  placed  where  it  may 
directly  move  the  heart  of  Dido;  and  yet  this  story  itself  is  a 
record  of  mental  struggle,  between  Laocoon  and  Sinon,  between 
Aeneas'  own  desire  and  the  bidding  of  Fate,  between  Anchises 
and  Aeneas,  between  Aeneas'  impulse  to  flee  and  his  longing  to 
seek  his  wife.     The  consummation  of  the  Aeneid— the  Fall  of 
Turnus— is  given  but  insignificant  place  in  comparison  with 
the  sufferings  of  Turnus'  mind  as,   despite  himself,  yet  of  his 
own  wiU,  he  draws  nearer  to  his  death,  a  death  which  he  owes 
directly  to  the  issue  of  conflict  in  Aeneas'  mind.    It  would  be 
hard  to  find  in  so  small  a  space  greater  play  of  feeling  than  these 
few  words  toward  the  end  of  the  strife: 

aestuat  ingens 
uno  in  corde  pudor  mixtoque  insania  luctu 
et  funis  agitatus  amor  et  conscia  virtus." 

But  now  we  have  passed  from  the  intellectual  analysis  of 
mental  action  and  reaction  to  the  keen  interest  of  understanding 
sympathy  with  mankind.  It  is,  need  one  say?  fundamentally 
essential  to  the  understanding  of  Vergil  that  to  the  poet's  own 

*•  See  Warde  Fowler,  The  Death  of  Turnus,  1919,  pp.  117  ff. 


28 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


% 


mind,  character,  heart,  should  be  wholeheartedly  attributed  all 
that  in  the  Aeneid  reveals  feeling  for  his  fellows,  whether  dwelt 
on  in  their  mass  or  as  individual  men  or  women.    The  sympathy 
of  Aeneas  with  human  joy  and  suffering  springs  directly  from 
Vergil's  own  heart.    The  resemblance3  here  traced  concern  only 
the  surface  of  the  poet's  creative  art;  yet,  I  think,  they  are  not 
without  some  interest  as  matter  of  comparison.    The  intimate 
knowledge  of  human  nature,  which  every  student  of  Vergil  has 
admitted  in  his  work,  is  obviously  the  poet's  own,  but  he  agrees 
with  the  manner  of  Hellenistic  Comedy  when  he  clearly  dis- 
tinguishes types  of  human  character,  and,  as  Heinze  has  noted, 
graphically  paints  details  distinctive  of  nation,  age,  and  sex. 
And  indeed  the  ideal  of  the  Roman  Court  reflected  the  liberal 
ideal  of  Alexander.    All  nations  flocked  into  Rome;  scholars, 
whatever  their  race  or  School— Athenodorus  the  Stoic,  Xenar- 
chus  the  Peripatetic,  Didymus  the  Eclectic — were  welcomed 
into  the  presence  of  Augustus;  men  of  literary  genius,  whatever 
their  standing  in  society,  were  invited  to  join  the  royal  circle. 
It  is  true  that  the  Roman  still  cherished  the  deeply  rooted 
dislike  for  foreigners— Jews,   Greeks,  and   Egyptians— which 
the  Macedonians  entertained  toward  barbarians;  it  is  true  also 
that  the  Romans  had  a  national  consciousness  such  as  was  never 
reached  by  the  peoples  of  the  Hellenistic  realms,  and  that  a 
Hellenistic  parallel  to  the  Aeneid  never  could  have  been  pro- 
duced;'" but  the  way  was  always  open  to  those,  whatever  their 
blood,  who  were  able  to  rise  through  their  own  capability  and 
the  help  of  powerful  friends.    The  cult  of  humanitas  which  had 
grown  up  in  the  days  of  Panaetius,  of  the  younger  Scipio  and  of 
Cicero,  still  continued  its  influence  under  the  early  Empire; 
though  the  cult  lost  definite  shape,  yet  Panaetius'  noble  hope  of 
transforming  the  Stoic  kingship  into  an  aristocracy  of  men  whose 
aim  was  the  uplifting,  not  merely  of  their  own  circles,  but  of  all 
mankind,  could  not  but  leave  its  mark  on  thinkers  of  the  suc- 
ceeding   generations."     The    introduction    of    oriental    rites, 
practised  by  all  without  distinction  of  race,  strengthened  the 
feeling  for  a  common  nature  of  mankind.^    So  Vergil  pictures 

»o  Cf.  Schwartz,  Charakterkdpfe,  IP,  1911,  p.  61. 

« Ibid.,  I,  1903,  pp.  88  f. 

"Cumont,  Oriental  Religions,  trans.  1911,  p.  28;  Clififord  H.  Moore,  The 
Decay  of  Nationalism  under  the  Roman  Empire^  Transactions  of  the  A,  P.  A. 
XLVIII  (1917),  p.  35. 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  LIFE  AND  LITERATURE  29 

the  Roman  Caesar  uniting  under  his  empire  in  long  array  sub- 
jects of  manifold  race,  dress,  and  tongue.  The  mark  of  humanis- 
tic philosophy  appears  every  now  and  again;  now  m  general 
sympathy  with  human  sufiFering: 

sunt  lacrimae  rerum  et  mentem  mortalia  tangunt; 

and: 

non  ignara  mali  miseris  succurrere  disco; 

and  in  the  consolationes,  which  remind  us  of  that  one  probably 
addressed  by  Horace  to  Vergil  himself  ;33  thus  Creusa  comforts 
her  distracted  husband,  and  the  old  Nautes  offers  hope  to 
Aeneas  after  the  loss  of  his  ships;  or  in  the  feeling  for  individual 
sorrow,  even  of  hardened  soldiers,  for  a  miserable  old  woman: 

hoc  fletu  concussi  animi,  maestusque  per  omnes 
it  gemitus:  torpent  infractae  ad  proelia  vires. 

Here  there  is  once  more  need  of  care,  lest  undue  in- 
fluence be  granted  to  the  Hellenistic  spirit  in  describing  the 
emotional  side  of  VergiFs  work.  As  I  have  said,  emotional 
experience  found  a  peculiarly  congenial  place  among  the  Hel- 
lenistic peoples;  and  their  authors  are  as  famed  for  their  expres- 
sion of  this  experience  as  they  are  for  their  intellectual  ambi- 
tions. The  sympathy  of  Nature  with  human  joy  or  sorrow  is 
strongly  marked  in  their  writings.  All  Nature  mourns  for  Daph- 
nis,  for  Adonis,  for  Bion;  in  Callimachus'  verse.  Nature  is 
transformed  into  gold  at  Apollo's  birth,  or  fears  the  wrath  of 
Ares;  river  rejoices  in  Artemis,  and  sea  keeps  silence  before 
Apollo.  So  in  the  Aeneid:  Nature  weeps  for  the  loss  of  the 
fallen  Umbro,  and  quakes  with  terror  at  the  exploits  of  Hercules 
or  the  cry  of  Allecto,  a  touch  borrowed  directly  from  Apollonius; 
the  Tiber  ebbs  in  fear  at  the  change  worked  in  the  ships,  or 
marvels  at  the  Trojan  vessels,  as  it  aids  them  to  reach  their 
journey's  end.  The  Euphrates  owns  allegiance  to  Caesar,  as 
the  rivers  stay  their  flow  to  do  Messala  reverence.  The  stead- 
fast course  of  Nature  in  her  familiar  road  symbolizes  that  which 
is  familiar  and  welcome  among  men;  discord  in  Nature  sym- 
pathizes with  strange  and  sad  happenings  in  the  human  world. 
The  Aufidus  flees  backward,  declares  Turnus,  when  Greeks 

"Horace,  Car.  I,  24;  Reitzenstein,  Neue  Jahrb.  XXI  (1908),  pp.  82 f.: 
"so  soil  auch  Vergil  sich  der  Klage  und  der  Klagelieder  nicht  schamen." 


[■ 


30 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  LIFE  AND  LITERATURE  31 


fear  Trojan  arms,  and  a  conquered  race  prevails;  so  Daphnis 
bids  all  Nature  run  riot,  since  he  must  die. 

The  mention  of  flowers  occurs  in  passages  tinged  with 
emotion.  There  is,  indeed,  nothing  new  to  literature  in  this; 
the  only  point  we  need  notice  is  this  weaving  of  flowers  into  the 
emotional  passages  of  epic  or  epyllion,  where  they  might  well 
attract  more  attention  than  in  the  more  natural  setting  of 
Sappho's  lyrics  or  Pindar's  odes.  Theocritus  stays  his  verse  to 
tell  of  the  grasses  around  the  well  where  Hylas  falls  to  the  arms 
of  the  Nymphs;  Europa  meets  the  bull  as  she  plays  among  the 
hyacinths,  the  roses,  and  the  violets  of  spring.  ApoUonius 
writes  of  Medea's  love: 

laLp€To  dk  <f>pkvas  et<ru 
rrjKonkvri,  oldu  re  vepl  fiobk-QVLv  ikpari 
rJiKerai,  rji^ouriv  iaivonevrj  <f>ake<T<rLP, 

In  the  Aeneid  Venus  carries  the  sleeping  Ascanius  in  her  arms 
to  Idalia: — 

ubi  mollis  amaracus  ilium 
floribus  et  dulci  aspirans  complectitur  umbra. 

We  remember  Evadne's  babe: 

dXX'  ip 
K€KpvTTo  yap  axoiv(^  ^aTtlq.  t    kv  diretpartp, 
lo)v  ^at^aiai  Kal  7ra/x7rop06po(s  iLKrlat  ^t^ptyyikvoi  k^phv 

Euryalus  fades  in  death  as  a  crimson  flower  cut  down  by  the 
plough;  the  body  of  Pallas  lies  in  death  like  a  soft  violet,  or  like 
a  hyacinth  snapped  from  its  stem  by  a  girl's  hand.  Such 
pictures  bring  back  the  memory  of  Catullus'  love,  fallen  like 
the  flower  touched  by  the  passing  plough  at  the  meadow's  end. 

Neither  does  the  animal  world  fail  to  contribute  its  touch  of 
emotion.  The  story  of  Silvia's  pet  stag  and  its  fate  Heinze 
calls  "hellenistisch-genrehaft,"  and  would  trace  to  some 
Hellenistic  poem  telling  of  the  story  of  Cyparissus,  as  in  the 
Metamorphoses  of  Ovid.  Alexandrians  among  the  writers  of  the 
Palatine  Anthology  had  also  told  of  pets;  the  detail  in  Catullus 
and  in  later  Latin  poetry  is  known  to  all. 

Among  emotional  tendencies  of  human  life,  the  cult  of  friend- 
ship, as  we  have  noted,  was  strongly  marked  in  Hellenistic 
circles,  and  indeed  rose  directly  from  the  circumstances  of  the 
time.     This  trait  finds  its  corresponding  place  in  the  epic  of 


Rome.  Fidus  is  the  epithet  chosen  for  Achates  and  for  Orontes;  ^ 
the  group  of  followers  mourned  by  Aeneas  after  the  great  storm, 
reminds  us  of  Augustus'  official  "friends."  The  story  of  Nisus 
and  Euryalus,  and  of  their  enterprise,  beginning  with  merry 
contest  in  sport  and  ending  in  death,  differs  utterly  in  spirit 
from  the  quest  of  Diomedes  and  Odysseus,  to  which  it  bears 
certain  external  resemblances;  Diomedes  chooses  Odysseus  on 
the  ground  of  expediency,  not  friendship;  no  tragic  end  seals 
their  union.  The  tale  of  Vergil's  two  heroes,  as  that  of  Cycnus' 
love  for  Phaethon,  rather  recalls  the  Hellenistic  fable  of  the  bond 
between  Heracles  and  the  boy  Hylas.^^  A  reference  to  love  of 
man  for  boy— such  as  the  Alexandrians  knew  it— is  found  in  the 
second  Eclogue  f  and  in  the  description  of  Cydon's  stream  of 
erotic  adventure  in  Book  X. 

When,  however,  we  come  to  the  painting  of  human  emotion, 
so  far  as  Vergil  depended  at  all  on  literary  forerunners  to  help 
him  express  his  own  concepts,  he  drew  from  Attic  tragedy  more 
than  from  its  later  imitators.  This  tragic  influence  on  the 
Aeneid  has  been  dealt  with  in  many  works ;^  I  may  merely  note 
here  traces  of  resemblances  where  both  Rome  and  Alexandria 
have  drawn  from  the  older  Greek  poetry.  Among  the  characters 
of  the  Aeneid,  a  prominent  place  is  given  to  those  who  allow  of 
emotional  display,  and  persons  of  minor  importance  are  intro- 
duced to  lead  up  to  this  element;  to  Hylas,  Alcimede,  Gorgo 
and  Praxinoe,  correspond  in  this  respect  Aegeus,  Amata,  Nisus 
and  Euryalus.  The  emotions  of  private  life  are  constantly 
brought  into  prominence  against  the  setting  of  the  heroic  in 
that  contrast  so  characteristic  of  Alexandrian  poetry.  Love 
entangles  Vergil's  hero  in  the  same  romanticism  which 
could  cast  its  glamour  about  the  cold  Achilles  of  Homeric  tale;'^ 
and  Jupiter  strives  to  dry  the  tears  of  Hercules  for  the  son 
called  by  inevitable  Fate.  Sorrow  is  described  by  means  of 
the  conventional  lament  of  parent  for  son;  as  Alcimede  and 
Aegeus  mourn,  so  do  Evander,  the  mother  of  Euryalus,  and 
Amata.    It  is  in  order  that  the  son  should  be  an  only  one,  the 

^  De  Witt,  The  Dido  Episode  in  the  Aeneid,  1907,  pp.  14,  15. 
»Ibid.,  p.  13;  Suet.  Vita  Verg.  9. 

»•  E.g.,  NetUeship,  Sellar,  Glover,  De  Witt,  opp.  citt.;  Rand,  Virgil  and  the 
Drama,  Class.  Journal  IV  (1908);  etc.,  etc. 
»^  Rohde,  Gr.  Roman,  1900,  pp.  109  f. 


32 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


comfort  of  his  parents'  old  age,  that  death  should  be  held 
preferable  to  this  loss,  that  men  or  maids  should  surround  the 
mourner  to  render  sympathy  or  practical  help.  So  act  the  Greek 
tragic  Chorus.  The  story  of  Achaemenides  is  introduced  by 
Vergil,  in  the  tragic  manner,  in  order  to  excite  sympathy  with 
suffering;  in  pitiful  appearance  and  supplication  the  Greek 
resembles  Phineus  among  the  Argonauts,  and  is  in  keeping  with 
the  spirit  of  the  Pergamene  School  and  the  Laocoon  of  Rhodes. 
Horror  is  inspired,  as  the  Alexandrians  loved  to  inspire  it,  by 
the  battle  in  burning  Troy  and  the  violence  of  Pyrrhus'  deeds; 
crude  force  awakens  wonder  in  the  wanton  slaughter  of  the  ox 
by  Entellus  during  the  funeral  games. 

Running  throughout  Hellenistic  descriptions  of  emotional 
experience  there  is  a  certain  lack  of  depth;  at  times  the  story 
is  crude  and  lacking  in  subtlety,  at  times  it  is  conventional. 
For  nothing  else  is  this  truer  than  for  the  central  emotion  of 
love,  on  which  the  Hellenistic  poets  delighted  to  dwell.  It  is, 
especially,  the  passion  of  the  woman  for  the  man;  for  love,  from 
the  time  of  Euripides  onwards,  is  the  ''sickness  sent  by  the 
god,"  against  which  the  soul  in  its  weakness  struggles,  but  in 
vain.*8  The  dignity  of  older  drama,  we  remember,  would  have 
none  of  it: 

oW  oW  oMels  Hjifrip*  kpSxrav  iriyiroT^  kirolri<ra  ywaiKa. 

But  with  Euripides,  the  Realist,  grew  up  a  desire  of  analysing 
this  victimizing  passion,  as  part  of  the  phenomena  of  the  actual 
world;  his  followers  in  Hellenistic  circles  eagerly  seized  the  task 
of  probing  the  heart  no  less  than  the  mind,  and  handed  on 
this  attractive  problem  to  their  Roman  pupils.  Did  not  Par- 
thenius  himself  write  Love  Tales?  Catullus  and  Vergil  must 
try  their  hand  at  this  theme  which  figured  so  largely  in  their 
lesson-books. 

And,  indeed,  whether  as  a  source  of  emotional,  or  of  intel- 
lectual, inspiration,  woman  was  prominent  in  Vergil's  world. 
If  we  turn  a  moment  from  books  to  r^al  life,  we  remember  that 
in  Rome,  as  in  Greece,  with  the  rising  of  the  individual  man  to 
arbitrary    control,    came    woman's    increased    opportunity.'* 

»8  Ibid.,  p.  157. 

"  Helbig,  Campanische  Wandmalerei,  1873,  p.  191. 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  LIFE  AND  LITERATURE  33 

Livia  was  almost  to  Augustus  as  Berenice  to  Ptolemy,  and  her 
Enaperor-consort  frequently  sought  her  counsel.  The  royal 
ladies  were  well  versed  in  literature,  a  philosopher  dedicated  his 
work  to  Octavia,  and  before  her  and  Augustus  Vergil  read  the 
sixth  book  of  his  Aeneid.  From  the  words  of  the  Stoic  Aureus, 
Livia  gained  consolation  after  the  death  of  Drusus;  philosophy 
was  studied  among  women,  and  Plutarch  advised  for  them 
instruction  in  science.  It  is  not  surprising,  then,  to  find  that 
lopas  entertains  the  guests  of  Dido  with  Lucretian  questions  of 
suns  and  stars,  though  comment  both  ancient  and  modern  has 
approved  on  other  grounds  the  choice  of  philosophic  song  for 
the  queen's  court.  The  rule  of  Carthage  centres  in  its  monarch, 
as  did  the  government  of  Ptolemy  or  of  Mithridates;  in  inde- 
pendence and  ambition  Dido  is  their  equal^^— dux  feminafacti— 
and  she  was  leader,  moreover,  as  Kvicala  reminds  us,*i  of  a  race 
intractabile  hello.  Her  royal  state  entirely  resembles  that  of  the 
Egyptian  queen  ;<2  and  the  remembrance  of  Cleopatra  was  fresh 
in  the  poet's  mind.«  We  may  think  here  of  Nettleship's 
paraUel  from  the  other  end  of  the  story;  "As  Caesar  was  half 
won  by  Cleopatra,  Aeneas  is  half  won  by  Dido."*<  Hecuba 
controls  her  aged  husband-king;  the  spirit  of  Creusa  counsels 
Aeneas.  The  burning  jealousy  of  Juno  is  skilfully  described; 
the  passionate  struggle  between  her  and  her  rival  goddess  is  well 
contrasted  with  the  few  calm  words  of  Jupiter,  and  might  recall 

«  So  Mahaffy  {op.  cU.,  p.  291)  remarks  Medea's  "strength  of  will  and 
determined  action  as  compared  with  Jason.  .  .  .  It  is  she  who  has  to  propose 
every  plan;  it  is  she  who  flies  alone  and  unsolicited  through  the  night,  and 
hails  the  ship  to  take  her  on  board.  It  is  she  who,  to  defeat  the  various  efforts 
made  by  her  father  to  recover  her,  suppUcates,  upbraids,  and  objurgates,  while 
the  heroes  show  her  very  lukewarm  courtesy." 

«  Vergil-Studieny  1878,  p.  105.  He  compares  (p.  146)  the  rule  of  Dido 
in  Carthage  with  that  of  the  women  in  Lenmos  described  by  ApoUonius. 

*»  Cf.  that  of  Medea  m  Apollonius.  Mahaffy  notes  {op.  cit.,  p.  292) :  "The 
respect  with  which  Medea  is  treated  when  she  appears  in  the  street  (III,  885) 
is  very  different  from  the  independent  criticism  of  the  Phaeacians  upon  Nausicaa 
or  even  Arete." 

«  Warde  Fowler,  Rel.  Exp.  of  the  Roman  People,  1911,  p.  415:  "It  is  to  me 
inexplicable  .  .  .  that  neither  Heinze  nor  Norden  should  have  even  touched 
on  the  possibility  that  Cleopatra  was  in  the  poet's  mind  when  he  wrote  the 
fourth  book." 

*«  Op.  cU.,  p.  104. 


M.  .1  '.^J.  ""TB^TS^ 


34 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


many  a  stormy  scene  among  ladies  of  Hellenistic  courts.**  It 
is  women  who  fire  the  Trojan  ships,  Dido  who  fires  a  funeral 
pyre — notumque  furens  quid  femina  possit.  The  martial  spirit 
of  Hellenistic  royal  women  is  exactly  pictured  in  Camilla,  who 
comes  to  help  Turnus,  to  his  deep  gratitude.  The  fury  of  the 
queen  Amata,  goading  on  her  women  in  rebellion,  recalls  Olym- 
pias,  mother  of  Alexander;  Olympias  would  have  none  of  Philip 
Arridaeus  and  Eurydice,  for  they  were  not  born  of  Macedonian 
race:  Amata  will  have  none  of  the  foreigner  who  seeks  to  oust 
her  chosen  Turnus  avis  atavisque  potens,  Nettleship  notes 
the  resemblance:^  "the  description  of  the  queen  (i.e.,  Amata), 
and  more  particularly  the  ingens  coluber  in  which  the  frenzy  is 
embodied  (VII,  352)  recalls  Plutarch's  description  of  the 
Bacchanalian  celebrations  of  Olympias  (Alex,  2): 

ij  8k  'OXu/iTiAs  naWop  krkfxav  j^rjXofatura  rds  icaroxAs  koI  roin  Mownaanovs 
i^dyowra  fiap^apucuTtpov  50«ts  txty&Xow  x^t^po^^t-^  k<t>tL\K€ro  toU  d4<!urois,  ot 
ToW&Kis  iK  Tov  KiTToO  Kal  TUP  ixwrTucuv  Xlxvciv  vapavabv6p.tvoi  koL  TtpuXiTrbn^voi 
ToU  Oipaois  rdv  ywaiKuv  koI  rotj  aTe<f>6.POLi  i^iirXrjTTov  roifs  &p8pas." 

If,  again,  the  Diadochi  supported  their  insecure  claims  to  royal 
power  by  marriage,  we  need  not  forget  that  the  whole  struggle 
of  Aeneas  and  Turnus  was  centred  about  the  hope  of  Lavinia's 
hand  and  her  father's  throne. 

Woman,  then,  was  of  material  interest  and  importance 
in  life,  as  she  was  in  literature,  also,  from  the  time  of  Euripides. 
But  the  Hellenistic  poets  did  not  care  especially  to  dwell  on 
Phaedras  or  Stheneboeas.  One  of  their  favourite  types  of 
woman  is  the  sylvan  huntress,  all  pure  in  her  simple  life  among 
woods  and  woodland  creatures,  untouched  by  passion  of  man. 


*»  Cf.  Sellar,  op.  cit.,  p.  366;  and  Warde  Fowler,  VirgU*s  Gathering  of  the 
Clans,  pp.  39  L:  "Emphatically  we  may  say  that  in  the  Aeneid  she  (Juno) 
represents  the  feminine  temper,  or  at  least  some  aspects  of  it  which  were  well 
known  in  the  last  century  B.C.  Dr.  Glover  has  rightly  pointed  out  that  she  also 
in  the  poem  stands  for  a  false  idea  of  empire.  .  .  .  This  idea  of  empire  is  false 
not  only  because  it  is  backed  up  by  a  great  female  numen,  whose  temper  is 
irreconcilable  with  the  large  masculine  benevolence  of  Jupiter,  but  because,  with 
the  aid  of  that  numen,  it  is  embodied  in  a  woman,  Dido,  foreshadowing  the 
beautiful  dangerous  queen  of  Virgil's  own  day." 

^Op.cit.^p.  109,  note  3. 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  LIFE  AND  LITERATURE  55 

So  Vergil  painted  Camilla.^  The  other  is  the  girl  of  royal  birth 
wrapped  in  like  purity,«  suddenly  attacked  by  the  god  of 
mischief— the  boy  and  his  wanton  arrow.  Her  high  birth  gives 
poignancy  to  the  Treptir^rcta  which  ensues:  her  faU  from  the 
happiness  of  innocence  to  the  knowledge  of  despair.  As  it  is 
constantly  the  untried  giri  who  is  the  victim,  so  constantly  the 
passion  inspired  by  Cupid  must  struggle  with  conscience,  and 
conscience  yields  to  its  stress.  But  the  struggle  itself  is  not 
tragic  unto  death:  Medea's  tragedy  is  yet  many  years  distant 
at  the  end  of  the  Argonautica — 

fiPTfaaro  p^p  repirpcap,  5<r'  ipl  f woi<rt  irkXoPTai, 
p.pit<yaB'  dfiriXucLrii  TepiyrjSeos,  old  re  KoOprj' 

lacchus  comforts  Ariadne;  Scylla  and  Tarpeia  suffer  an  involun- 
tary punishment  inflicted  from  without. 

It  is  in  this  skilful  painting  of  the  battle  between  passion 
and  conscience  that  the  VergiUan  epyUion  heralds  the  epic. 
The  very  first  word  of  the  narrative  of  the  Ciris  is  impia-^ 
followed  by  exterrita;  skilfuUy  the  poet  thus  arouses  with  a 
touch  both  censure  and  sympathy  before  he  gives  any  detaHs 
of  the  crime.  It  is  against  her  father  that  ScyUa  sms—scelerata: 
yet  did  she  know  what  she  did? 

quis  non  bonus  omnia  malit 
credere,  quam  tanto  sceleris  damnare  puellam? 

So  Vergil  works  upon  our  critical  faculties,  and  now  we  blame 
and  now  we  excuse.    Yet  to  no  avaU;  the  end  is  the  same: 

heu  tamen  infelix:  quid  enim  imprudentia  prodest? 

For  the  passion  is  irxtshtMt—neque  est  cum  dis  contendere 
nostrum— th^t  Juno,  for  her  jealousy,  sends  upon  the  giri.  Her 
crime  stands  out,  when  it  is  finaUy  accomplished,  as  strongly 
as  her  love:  she  is  both  a  traitor  to  her  father  and  her  father- 
land. There  is  no  mistake  about  her  guilt  in  the  eyes  of  any 
one,  only  excuse.  Medea,  likewise,  slays  her  brother  for  her 
love,  and  Ariadne  allows  her  brother's  death: 

eripui  et  potius  germanum  amittere  crevi 
quam  tibi  fallaci  supremo  in  tempore  deessem. 

«^  De  Witt,  op.  cit.,  p.  53. 
«•  Mahaffy,  p.  291. 


36 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


This  is  the  elementary  motive  which  Vergil  transferred  to  his 
story  of  Dido,  and  enriched  and  deepened  till  it  is  altogether 
transfigured.**  Dido  is  not  merely  of  royal  birth;  she  is  a 
queen  in  her  own  right,  ruling  a  warlike  folk;  hers  is  no  mere 
untried  innocence,  ignorant  of  suffering,  but  a  purity  of  con- 
scious determination,  the  outcome  of  sorrow  and  knowledge  of 
ill.  Proudly  she  has  stood  firm  in  her  resolve  to  have  nought 
more  of  man's  wooing  and  man's  love.  Then,  not  through  a 
mere  glimpse  of  a  stranger  within  her  gates  or  without  her  walls, 
but  through  her  quick  human  feeling  she  meets  her  destiny: 

non  ignara  mali  miseris  succurrere  disco. 

The  Cupid  of  the  Aeneid  is  not  the  spoiled  child  of  the  Argonau- 
tica,  or  the  heartless  youth  of  Catullus,  or  the  wilful  son  of  the 
CiriSj  but  the  obedient  son;  Venus  does  not  seek  to  win  his  help 
by  bribes  of  playthings,  but  appeals  to  his  sympathy  for  his 
brother  in  distress.  The  heart  of  Dido  is  not  penetrated  by  a 
wanton  arrow  swiftly  sent,  but  through  the  warmth  of  her  own 
mother-love.  She  is  as  ignorant  as  Scylla  of  the  attack  of  the 
god — inscia  .  .  .  insidat  quantus  miserae  deus — yet  here,  too, 
there  is  a  struggle  between  right  and  wrong  when  once  her  love 
reveals  itself.  There  is  no  gross  complication  of  ethics  in  this 
case;  no  one  could  imagine  VergiPs  heroine  betraying  or  mur- 
dering her  kin.  But  is  she  to  keep  her  own  high  standard  of 
resolve?  To  be  untrue  to  her  vow  of  chastity  is  a  crime;  culpa 
she  calls  it.    And  she  starts  out  in  her  brave  spirit  to  down  this 

thing: 

sed  mihi  vel  tellus  optem  prius  ima  dehiscat, 
vel  Pater  omnipotens  abigat  me  fulmine  ad  umbras, 
pallentes  umbras  Erebo  noctemque  profundam, 
ante,  Pudor,  quam  te  violo,  aut  tua  iura  resolvo. 
Ble  meos,  primus  qui  me  sibi  iunxit,  amores 
abstulit;  ille  habeat  secum  servetque  sepulcro. 


She  has  a  girPs  shame  before  the  admission  of  her  love, 
can  hardly  bring  herself  to  mention  Minos : 

dicendum  est,  frustra  circimivehor  omnia  verbis: 


Scylla 


Dido  will  not  mention  Aeneas  to  Anna  by  name;  hie  hospes  is 
enough. 


*»De  Witt,  op.  cU.;  Glover,  op.  cit.y  chapter  VIII. 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  LIFE  AND  LITERATURE  37 

Like  all  the  others,  she  yields,  and  she  suffers;  her  suffering 
is  thrown  into  greater  shadow  because  Aeneas  in  deserting  her, 
rather~so  Vergil  would  have  us  believe— regains  faithfulness 
to  duty  than  abandons  it.  But,  unlike  the  others,  there  is  for 
her  no  comfort,  no  amelioration  of  her  fsite^Moriemur  inultae, 
sed  moriamur.  She  alone  gives  herself  to  death;  and  her  fate 
strikes  pity  and  fear  in  so  much  the  greater  degree  as  she  excelled 
other  victims  in  her  former  triumph; 

ilia  ego  sum  Nisi  pollentis  filia  quondam: 
cries  Scylla  dragged  through  the  waves; 

felix,  heu  nimium  felix,  si  litora  tantum 
numquam  Dardaniae  tetigissent  nostra  carinae: 

cries  Dido  as  she  mounts  the  funeral  pyre. 


CHAPTER  III 

The  Influence  of  Hellenistic  Life  and  Literature  (B) 
Without  in  any  way  attempting  to  enter  into  a  discussion  of 
VergiPs  views — Stoic  or  Epicurean^ — we  may  note,  further- 
more, in  the  Aeneid  some  traces  of  the  trend  of  the  times  in 
matters  of  the  soul.     We  have  observed  that  as  in  the  things 
pertaining  to  the  mind  or  heart,  so  in  those  of  the  soul,  the 
individual  of  Hellenistic  times  was  engrossingly  absorbed  in 
himself.     The  more  educated  man  felt  but  formal  need  of 
higher  beings;  to  his  own  efforts  should  his  own  success  be  due. 
This  independence  is  reflected  in  literature.     Neither  in  Apol- 
lonius  nor  in  Vergil  do  the  gods  dwell  among  mankind  as  in  the 
Homeric  day.     It  is  true  that,  as  Gercke  points  out,  Vergil 
makes  use  of  an  extraordinary  detail  of  religious  apparatus  for 
the  furthering  of  the  destiny  of  Aeneas  and  his  companions; 
but  it  is  apparatus  clearly  external  to  the  inner  life  of  the  poem. 
Zeus  dwells  far  apart,  as  the  almost  impersonal  arbiter  of 
Fate.    No  idea  of  his  appearance  can  be  gathered  from  either 
poet;  each  shows  reserve  in  dealing  with  the  human  passions 
of  Zeus  of  which  Homer  freely  spoke.    Prayers  are  no  more  the 
daughters  of  Zeus;  Anchises  doubts  whether  they  avail  to  move 
him.    Pallas  feels  no  fear  of  unseen  principalities  and  powers; 

numina  nulla  premunt,  mortal!  urgemur  ab  hoste 
mortales  .  .  . 

The  Other  gods,  with  the  exception  of  Apollo  in  the  Argonautica 
and  of  Venus  in  the  Aeneid ,  take  very  little  part  in  the  action; 
a  situation  strongly  in  contrast  with  their  energetic  interest, 
amounting  even  to  actual  war,  in  the  progress  of  the  battle 
before  Troy.  Few  details  are  given  concerning  them,  but 
Venus,  when  she  appears  to  Aeneas,  entirely  resembles  an  earth- 
born  huntress,  bare  of  knee,  and  scant  of  skirt;  when  she  mani- 
fests herself  as  true  goddess,  her  rose-iiued  neck  shines  forth, 
her  hair  exhales  sweet  perfume,  her  dress  falls  to  her  feet — 
details  worthy  of  Apollonius'  picture  of  Cypris  combing  her  hair. 

»  For  example,  I  do  not  deal  here  with  Book  VI,  discussed  by  Norden  and 
many  others. 

38 


influence  of  HELLENISTIC  LIFE  AND  LITERATURE 


39 


In  like  fashion  the  ancient  worship  of  the  gods,  as  at  Alexan- 
dria, so  at  Rome,  was  useful  to  the  Emperors  as  machinery  for 
the  promotion  of  their  state  craft,  but  had  little  influence 
upon  the  practice  of  individual  citizen  life.  As  the  Ptolemies 
leaned  on  Heracles  and  Dionysus,  so  Augustus  diplomatically 
honoured  the  cult  of  Vesta  and  of  Apollo.  Vergil  is  careful  for 
the  glory  of  Rome  to  emphasize  the  Trojan  origin  of  Vesta  and 
the  Penates — a  dogma  first  established  in  the  time  of  Caesar 
and  Augustus^ — and  Augustus'  devotion  to  Apollo,  whose  seer, 
Helenus,  plays  so  important  a  part  in  the  guidance  of  Aeneas' 
destiny. 

For  individual  consolation,  the  lower  classes  of  Vergil's 
City  were  turning  to  Hellenistic  deities,  while  at  the  same  time 
"the  syncretic  tendencies  of  Egypt  responded  admirably  to 
those  that  began  to  obtain  at  Rome,'''  reflected  in  the  suprem- 
acy of  the  Jupiter  of  the  Aeneid.  And  other  traces  of  the  newer 
developments  in  religion  appear.  Anchises  mentions  Crete 
as  the  home  of  Cybele  and  her  Corybants  and  yoked  lions; 
Aeneas,  the  ancestor  of  Rome,  is  represented  twice  as  offering 
prayer  to  the  Phrygian  Mother  of  the  Gods.  Yet  she,  too, 
must  sue  for  favour  from  her  greater  son;  and  in  general  we 
find  here  the  antagonism  of  the  philosophic  thinkers  to  strange 
worship  of  foreign  gods.  Evander  declares  of  the  sacrifice  to 
Hercules: 

non  haec  sollemnia  nobis, 
has  ex  more  dapes,  hanc  tanti  numinis  aram 
vana  superstitio  veterumque  ignara  deorum 
imposuiti* 

the  conflict  rages  between  Gods  of  Egypt  and  of  Rome: 

omnigenumque  deum  monstra  et  latrator  Anubis 
contra  Neptunum  et  Venerem  contraque  Minervam 
tela  tenent  .  .  .  : 

all  flee  in  panic  at  the  sight  of  the  drawn  bow  of  the  Apollo 
of  Actium,  and  Caesar  offers  thanksgiving  to  the  gods  of  Italy. 
Even  the  orgies  of  the  Great  Mother  are  fit  for  women  rather 

«  Wissowa,  Religion  und  KuUus  der  Rdmefj  1902,  p.  148. 

•Cumont,  op.  cit.,  p.  88;  De  Witt,  Virgil  and  Apocalyptic  Literature^ 
Class.  Journal,  XIII  (1918),  pp.  605  f. 

*  Ncttleship,  op.  cit.,  p.  134  f.  Warde  Fowler,  Aeneas  at  the  Site  of  Rome, 
1917,  p.  57,  remarks  on  these  lines:  "There  is  here  no  doubt  an  allusion  to 
Augustus'  distrust  of  new  foreign  worships,  especially  that  of  Isis,  which  had 
been  showing  itself  while  the  Aeneid  was  being  written  ..." 


40 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


than  men,  and  the  flute  of  Bacchus  ranks  among  the  dissipa- 
tions of  love-sick  youths.  The  spread  of  magic  art  in  Rome 
drew  forth  the  legislation  of  Augustus.  Vergil's  knowledge 
of  the  black  art  is,  of  course,  best  revealed  in  the  Ciris  and  the 
eighth  Eclogue y  where  Carme  and  Alphesiboeus  recall  Simaetha; 
and  in  the  fourth  book  of  the  Aeneid,  Of  the  description  of 
Umbro  and  his  skill  in  Book  VII  Fahz  remarks:  "quibus  locis 
nihil  fere  nisi  usitatissimae  res  exhibentur,  quas  quivis  Romanus 
jib's  temporibus  noverit."*  De  Witt  sees  a  hint  of  the  prejudice 
against  magic  practices  in  Rome  in  the  lines  of  Book  IV: 

tester,  cara,  decs  et  te,  germana,  tuumque 
dulce  caput,  magicas  invitam  accingier  artis; 

and  reminds  us:  "that  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Aeneid  the 
powers  of  the  nether  world  are  on  the  side  of  Rome's  enemies."' 
The  song  of  lopas  brings  us  within  the  realm  of  astrology,  and 
there  was  a  general  belief,  even  in  the  Imperial  Court  of  Vergil's 
day,  in  astrological  cult.  Sinon  appeals  to  the  divine  will  of 
the  stars;  Helenus  and  Asilas  can  interpret  their  meaning. 
Achaemenides  cries  in  entreaty: 

per  sidera  tester, 
per  superos  atque  hoc  caeli  spirabile  lumen,  (v.l.  numen) 
tollite  me,  Teucri  .  .  . 

At  the  moment  of  the  fulfilment  of  his  hope  in  at  length  gaining 
the  destined  shore,  Aeneas  himself  prays  to  Night  and  the 
rising  signs  of  Night;  on  the  brow  of  the  victorious  Augustus 
shines  the  Star  of  his  house,  a  token  first  vouchsafed  to  Julius 
Caesar. 

The  personality  conceived  of  as  animating  the  stars  is 
read  in  a  lesser  degree  into  other  aspects  of  Nature:  the  hostile 

5  De  poetarum  Romanorum  doctrina  magicaj  1904,  pp.  145  f.  He  continues: 
"Sed  ne  haec  quidem  intimam  rerum  magicarum  scientiam  redolent,  quare  in 
Vergilio  libenter  concede  posse  dubitari  utrum  res  magicae  haustae  sint  e  vul- 
gar! magiae  cognitione  an  descriptae  adhibito  auxilio  nescio  quo.  Tamen 
reliquos  si  spectamus  auctores,  in  banc  senteiftiam  inclinem."  Here  Fahz  cites 
Norden  (Aen,  VI,*  p.  199)  on  the  influence  of  the  Hellenistic  ZauberlUeratur 
upon  Vergil  and  other  Augustan  poets.  Cf .  also  Reitzenstein,  Die  heUen.  Mys- 
terienreligionenj  1910,  p.  12,  on  the  work  of  Nigidius  Figulus,  as  early  as  Cicero's 
time,  in  Hellenistic  magic. 

•  The  Dido  Episode  in  the  Aeneid,  p.  23;  cf.  Nettleship,  op.  cit,,  p.  135; 
Glover,  op.  cit.y  p.  133. 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  LIFE  AND  LITERATURE 


41 


shower,  the  threatening  cliffs,  the  quivering  shade.  The  same 
tendency  pervades  the  Georgics,''  In  personification  expressed 
by  allegory  the  most  prevalent  figures  are  Fama,  the  description 
of  whom  by  Vergil  has  given  rise  to  so  many  imitations,  and 
Fortuna,  whose  cult  developed  under  the  stress  of  the  later 
Roman  republican  days  as  did  that  of  Tbxn  in  the  Hellenistic 
age.  But,  while  the  cult  of  Fortune  was  becoming  steadily 
more  prominent  under  Augustus,  in  the  Aeneid  it  is  not  the 
Tifxn  of  "universal  power,"  that  goddess  whom  Hellenistic 
influence  introduced  indeed  into  Latin  lyric  poetry  of  the 
Empire,  but  the  Roman  Fortuna  populi  Romani  who  guides 
the  Trojans  throughout  their  journeyings  and  their  strife,  from 
the  time  when  Aeneas  "profugus  fato"  sets  sail  from  Troy,  to 
the  time  when  Turnus  utters  his  Jast  cry  to  his  despairing  sister: 

iam  iam  fata,  soror,  superant;  absiste  morari; 
quo  deus  et  quo  dura  vocat  Fortuna,  sequamur. 

How  fundamentally  the  Fortuna  of  the  Aeneid  differs  from  the 
Hellenistic  T6x»7  may  be  seen  in  Warde  Fowler's  words:  "For 
Virgil,  when  Rome  or  Aeneas  or  even  Evander  his  predecessor 
and  ally  is  in  question,  Fortuna  is  the  same  thing  as  Fate,  or 
Providence,  or  the  will  of  Jupiter  representing  the  Divine 
government  of  the  world,  or  the  Destiny  of  the  Stoics."® 

Amid  the  swaying  current  of  destiny,  when  men  were  so 
keenly  conscious  of  success  and  failure,  it  is  no  marvel  that 
Godhead  was  attributed  to  the  one  who  had  achieved  most  and 
had  brought  all  under  his  control;  or  that  Augustus,  like  the 
Diadochi,  willingly  entertained  this  support,  and  consented  to 
receive  homage  in  his  own  divinity,  or  as  some  one  of  the  Gods 
incarnate  upon  earth.  He  thus  appears  as  Mercury,  the 
restorer  of  trade  after  the  war,  with  Livia  as  Ceres,  the  bestower 
of  plenty.'  And  if  in  Egypt  the  cult  of  the  Pharaoh  made 
Godhead  easier  of  attainment  by  the  Diadochi,  in  Rome  also 
the  uplifting  of  morality  and  the  advancement  of  the  State  were 
inextricably  interwoven  with  the  State  religion,  and  he  who 


'  Ltinzner,  Ueher  Personificationen  in  Vergils  Gedichten,  1876. 

■  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  1914,  sub  voc.\  so  Heinze, 
op.  cit.,  p.  293.  Cf.  Warde  Fowler,  Class.  Review,  XVII  (1903),  pp.  153;  445; 
and  Roman  Ideas  of  Deity,  1914,  p.  77. 

•  Wissowa,  op.  cit.,  pp.  247  flF. 


42 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  LIFE  AND  LITERATURE 


43 


succeeded  in  helping  the  State  toward  a  better  and  purer  life 
was  easily  identified  with  the  Gods  to  whom  the  Romans  looked 
for  such  aid.  The  poets  readily  received  this  idea  of  a  divinity 
won  by  merit.^**  In  the  Aeneid  Jupiter  promises,  and  Anchises 
prophesies,  a  deification  of  Caesar  laden  with  Oriental  spoil; 
of  Augustus,  restorer  of  the  Golden  Age  to  Rome.  Sellar 
{Virgil,  1897,  p.  16)  cites  in  this  connection  Horace:  Odes  III, 
3,  9;  Epistles  II,  I,  5;  and  Aeneid  VI,  801:  "in  all  these  passages 
the  idea  implied  is  that,  as  great  services  to  the  human  race 
have  in  other  times  raised  mortals  from  earth  to  heaven,  so  it 
shall  be  with  Augustus  after  the  beneficent  labours  of  his  life 
are  over."  He  notes  also:  "these  comparisons  may  be  more 
naturally  referred  to  Roman  "Euhemerism,"  than  to  the  sur- 
vival of  the  spirit  of  hero-worship,  which,  although  still  active 
in  Greece,  was  a  mode  of  feeling  alien  to  the  Roman  imagina- 
tion." The  belief  in  reward  based  on  merit  appealed,  of  course, 
especially  to  the  practical  Roman.^^  Aeneas,  when  he  has 
founded  his  great  race,  shall  reap  in  like  fashion  his  reward. 
So  declare  the  Penates: 

idem  ventures  toUemus  in  astra  nepotes 
imperiumque  urbi  dabimus.    Tu  moenia  magnis 
magna  para  longumque  fugae  ne  linque  laborem. 

Of  lulus  Apollo  declares: 

macte  nova  virtu te,  puer:  sic  itur  ad  astra; 

so  Dardanus,  and  so  Pandarus  won  immortality. 

Few  traces  were  left,  then,  of  uncritical  acquiescence  in  the 
orthodox  tenets  of  a  former  day.  We  find  here  the  same 
rationalism  that,  already,  in  the  decline  of  the  Republic,  had 

*•  But  cf.  Warde  Fowler  on  the  "apotheosis"  passages  of  Vergil  and  Horace: 
"You  have  only  to  examine  them  to  see  that  they  represent  Augustus  not  as  a 
deity,  but  as  having  the  germ  of  a  deity  in  him,  which  may  be  developed  at 
his  death;  and  that  the  farthest  length  they  go  is  to  assume  proleptically  in 
imagination  that  this  development  has  already  taken  place."  {Roman  Ideas 
of  Deity,  p,  126.) 

"  "A  great  Roman  governor  often  had  the  chance  of  thus  helping  humanity 
on  a  vast  scale  and  liked  to  think  that  such  a  life  opened  the  way  to  heaven": 
Gilbert  Murray,  Four  Stages  of  Greek  Religion,  1912,  pp.  139  f.  Cf.  Kiessling  on 
Horace's  portrayal  of  Augustus  as  divine  giver  of  prosperity,  Phil.  Unters. 
II  (1881),  p.  92,  note. 


attracted  so  many  to  the  teachings  of  Epicurus,  against  which 
Poseidonius  had  endeavoured,  Contrary  to  older  Stoic  practice^ 
to  encourage  scientific  research  in  support  of  the  Stoic  faith.^* 
Miracles  need  apology  in  this  rationalistic  age.  Legrand  has 
remarked  the  little  details  which  Theocritus  adds  to  the  story 
of  the  strangling  of  the  serpents  by  Heracles  in  order  to  make 
this  story  appear  more  probable — the  age  of  the  child,  the  hour 
at  which  the  deed  was  done,  the  light  sent  by  Zeus.  In  similar 
fashion  Vergil  treats  marvels,  as  Heinze  has  shown  in  comparing 
the  miraculous  healing  of  Hector  by  Apollo  in  the  Iliad  with 
that  of  Aeneas  at  Venus'  hand;  the  latter  is  a  marvel,  but  a 
marvel  naturally  worked  out.  Vergil  is  half-ashamed  to  tell 
the  wonderful  transformation  of  the  ships,  and  must  support 
his  tale  with  reference  to  long-standing  belief;  so  ApoUonius,  in 
deference  to  the  Pierides  and  as  a  concession  to  rumour,  tells  of 
the  bearing  of  the  Argo  over  the  Libyan  sands.  Neither  his 
ofl&ce  nor  his  holy  life  save  Apollo's  priest,  Panthus,  from  death, 
just  as  augury  cannot  protect  Turnus'  favourite,  Rhamnes; 
Palinurus  would  trust  his  own  knowledge  of  seamanship  before 
the  assurance  of  the  king  of  Gods  and  men  himself;  in  two 
passages  (XI,  118;  XII,  538,  539)  deus  and  dextra  are  used  in 
an  almost  parallel  fashion.  The  Stoic  ratio  physica  seems  to 
be  reflected,  as  Heinze  suggests,  in  the  prayer  of  Nisus  to  Luna 
in  the  ninth  book;  and  in  the  bow  of  a  thousand  colours  which 
Iris,  the  glory  of  Heaven,  traces  across  the  sky.  And  yet,  as 
Reitzenstein  points  out,^^  Stoic  philosophy  sought  no  quarrel 
with  Hellenistic  religion,  but  rather  sympathy:  "with  the  rise 
of  monarchies  we  find  systematic  attention  paid  for  the  first 
time  to  the  religious  feelings  of  the  people  in  general,  at  all 
times  a  necessary  measure  in  Oriental  politics.  Stoic  philosophy 
adapted  itself  to  this  endeavour:  gave  to  Apologetics  a  place 
in  literature,  explained  the  Gods  as  ideas  or  powers  of  Nature, 
and  Myths  in  allegorical  fashion.  Thus,  first  for  the  Greek, 
and  shortly  after  for  Oriental  religions,  it  succeeded  in  attaining 
a  tolerari  posse,  a  proof,  appealing  to  the  intellect,  that  popular 
belief  and  the  scientific  lore  of  the  savant  need  not  war  one  on 
the  other." 


^  See  Schwartz,  op.  cit.,  I,  pp.  93  fiF. 
*•  Die  hellen.  Mysterienreligionen,  pp.  3  f . 


44 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  LIFE  AND  LITERATURE 


45 


Other  philosophical  elements  may  easilyTbe  traced;   the 
prevalent  intellectual  debate  arises  in  Nisus*  question:        ^ 

sua  cuique  deus  fit  dira  cupido? 

the  eternal  moral  questioning  in  Sinon's  well-feigned  scruples: 

fas  mihi  Graiorum  sacrata  resolvere  iura, 
fas  odisse  viros,  atque  omnia  ferre  sub  auras; 

and  in  the  question  of  Coroebus: 

dolus  an  virtus,  quis  in  hoste  requirat? 

The  joy  of  the  Simple  Life  occurs  again  and  again,  now  voiced 
by  the  lips  of  Evknder: 

aude,  hospes,  contemnere  opes  et  te  quoque  dignum 
finge  deo,  rebusque  veni  non  asper  egenis; 

now  Straight  from  the  poet's  own  heart: 

nescia  mens  hominum  fati  sortisque  futurae 
et  servare  modum,  rebus  sublata  secundis! 

and  now  in  the  words  of  his  hero: 

quid  non  mortalia  pectora  cogis, 
auri  sacra  fames  .  .  . 

Sychaeus  is  blind  with  love  of  gold,  Oebalus  in  discontent  with 
his  father's  estate  oppresses  other  men,  to  the  Golden  Age 
succeeds  an  age  of  evil  hue,  spoiled  by  the  growing  desire  for 
gain.  Back  to  the  Hfe  of  harmony  with  Nature !  So  preached 
the  Hellenistic  Stoics,  so  preached  the  Roman  Stoicism  reflected 
by  Vergil  here.  And  so  we  reach  that  vital  doctrine  of  its 
philosophy:  submission  to  the  will  of  Fate.  Dis  diter  visum 
—says  the  poet  of  the  death  of  righteous  Rhipeus,  and  Nautes 
thus  consoles  Aeneas: 

nate  dea,  quo  fata  trahunt  retrahuntque  sequamur; 
quidquid  erit,  superanda  omnis  fortuna  ferendo  est.** 

Above  all,  the  Aeneid  reflects  Hellenistic  philosophy  in  its 
emphasis  upon  the  individual  soul.  Aeneas,  against  his  wiU, 
is  drawn  forward  to  his  high  adventure;  so  the  Hellenistic 
philosopher,  so  Vergil  himself,  found  his  happiness  in  dxpaT- 
lUicvvri.     The  first  six  books  reveal  the  hero's  weaknesses,  his 


terror,  his  shrinking,  his  foolishness:  as  these  traits  are  revealed 
in  every  man  whom  his  better  self  sends  forward  to  achieve  his 
destiny.  Through  error,  trial,  and  failure,  he  progresses,  slowly 
yet  surely  choosing  t6  Tpovjyfikvov,  the  better  thing,  till  with  the 
progress  of  the  work  he,  too,  progresses  to  conquest.  Finally, 
as  the  Sapiens  was  the  hope  of  ordinary  men  in  Hellenistic  days, 
as  thinkers  desired  to  see  this  hope  fulfilled  in  Alexander;  so 
in  Aeneas,  the  Philosopher-King,  brought  to  his  goal  by  Fate, 
the  guiding  hand  of  God,  through  triumph  over  every  hostile 
force,  lies  the  final  hope  for  all  the  race  who  shall  draw  from 
him  their  common  life. 


M  Reitzenstein,  Neue  Jahrb.  XXI  (1908),  p.  82. 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  TECHNIQUE 


47 


Hfih 


CHAPTER  IV 
The  Influence  of  Hellenistic  Technique 

— A— 

Contributing  alike  to  VergiFs  thought  and  the  form  in 
which  he  clothes  it,  is  the  art  of  the  Aeneid,  as  Heinze  and 
Norden  have  traced  it:  "the  constructive  and  architectural 
power  which  was  part  of  his  own  gift  from  nature,  and  which  he 
slowly  developed  through  unceasing  study.  "^  This  art  Vergil 
owes  in  appreciable  measure  to  Hellenistic  fineness  of  percep- 
tion; for  he  adopted  certain  of  the  technical  expedients  of  his 
predecessors.  Thus,  for  example,  effects  are  heightened  by  the 
employment  of  the  principle  of  contrast.  In  Theocritus,  also, 
light  is  contrasted  with  shadow:  realistic  with  heroic  narrative 
in  the  story  of  the  infant  Heracles,  comedy  with  tragedy  in  the 
Adoniazusae.  In  ApoUonius  the  secure  joy  of  the  Colchians  in 
possession  of  the  fleece  and  their  hope  of  safe  return  are  rudely 
broken  by  terror  at  the  anger  of  Zeus;  the  misery  of  the  Syrtes 
follows  hard  upon  wedding  joy;  grief  for  Idmon  and  Tiphys 
follows  the  mirth  of  the  feast.  The  vision  of  Apollo  at  dawn, 
the  sight  of  the  wretched  Phineus,  the  attack  of  the  bird  of 
Ares,  fall  with  sudden  joy,  pity,  and  fear  upon  the  heroes; 
the  stories  of  Medea,  the  earthborn  men,  the  sons  of  Phrixus, 
come  suddenly  before  the  readers. 

Again,  Carl  Newell  Jackson  has  remarked:*  "It  is  an  essen- 
tial feature  of  the  Alexandrian  school  of  poetry  to  allow  one 
literary  form  to  encroach  upon  the  province  of  another.  Hence 
the  epyllion  is  apt  to  be  a  complex  of  at  least  two  different  forms. 
The  twenty-fifth  poem  of  Theocritus,  for  instance,  is  really  an 
epic  idyl  within  a  pastoral  setting.  .  .  .  The  thirteenth  idyl, 
the  episode  of  Heracles  and  Hylas,  is  an  epyllion  set  in  an  elegiac 
frame.  ...  It  remained,  however,  for  the  Latin  poets,  ambi- 
tious to  be  original,  to  develop  this  idea  of  merging  two  forms 
in  one  poem,  or  rather  of  setting  one  form  within  another. 
In  his  sixty-fourth  poem  Catullus  has  put  the  lyric  lament  of 

*  Mackail,  Lectures  on  Poetry y  1911,  p.  55. 

*  Op.  cit.y  p.  42;  cf.  MackaU,  Lectures  on  Greek  Poetry,  1910,  p.  252. 

46 


Ariadne,  descriptive  entirely,  within  a  piece  of  pure  narrative, 
that  is,  a  romantic  within  an  epyllion  almost  heroic,  and  then, 
to  boot,  following  the  heroic  epyllion  an  epithalamium  which  is 
essentially  a  variation  of  the  elegiac  genus.  The  Aristaeus 
episode  in  the  fourth  book  of  the  Georgics  follows  a  somewhat 
similar  arrangement,  in  that  the  lament  of  Orpheus  is  preceded 
and  followed  by  the  Aristaeus  epyllion.  The  author  of  the 
Ciris  outdid  all  his  fellow-poets  by  combining  epic,  lyric,  and 
dramatic  elements,  and  then  adding  to  the  mixture  a  bit  of 
didactic  verse,  and  closing  this  effort  with  a  metamorphosis,  a 
form  distinct  in  itself.  Finally  in  the  Cidex,  the  epyllion  lies 
side  by  side  with  the  pastoral.  None  of  these  poets,  it  would 
seem,  had  learned  the  Theocritean  or  the  Virgilian  art  (as  it 
appears  in  the  Aeneid)  of  weaving  these  separate  threads  into 
a  single  texture.  The  step  from  epic  to  lyric,  or  epic  to  pastoral, 
or  epic  to  elegy  is  too  abrupt,  with  the  result  that  unity  of  effect 
is  destroyed.'*  I  would  note  in  the  Aeneid  the  maturing  of  the 
art  of  that  same  poet  of  the  Ciris  and  the  Culex.  The  ninth  book 
of  the  Aeneid  might  be  taken  as  an  example  of  Vergil's  skilled 
mingling  of  the  various  threads  in  his  artistic  web.  Here  we  find 
the  didactic  element,  illustrated  in  the  description  of  the  sluggish 
Ganges  with  seven  mouths,  the  psychological  question  as  to 
whence  comes  fell  desire,  the  frigid  derivation  of  the  name 
Albani;  the  lyric  element  inspires  the  poet's  memorial  to 
the  fallen  heroes  and  the  cry  of  the  mother  over  her  son; 
the  dramatic  instinct  is  responsible  for  the  exciting  story  of  the 
capture  in  the  moonlight  which  filters  through  the  darkness  of 
the  wood. 

Another  detail  of  technique  seen  in  the  Aeneid,  the  artistic 
introduction  of  ecphrasis,  is  rightly  referred  by  Heinze  to  Hellen- 
istic precedent.  Theocritus'  description  of  the  bowl  arouses  the 
desire  of  Thyrsis  to  sing,  and  the  erotic  and  rustic  characters 
described  are  entirely  in  keeping  with  the  shepherd's  life;  Mos- 
chus  in  the  story  of  Europa  chose  well  to  inscribe  on  his  bowl 
the  fate  of  lo;  the  mantle  of  Jason  is  described  in  order  to 
enhance  Hypsipyle's  desire,  and  Apollonius  was  careful  to  show 
Phrixus  and  the  fleece  in  the  embroideries  thereon.  The  influ- 
ence of  ecphrasis  upon  descriptive  narrative  is  interesting;  the 
expressions  at  parte  ex  alia  .  .  .  alia  parte  .  .  .  diversa  in 
parte  in  literary  descriptions  of  life  point  to  this  model,  and  one 


'"■'■'ff 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  TECHNIQUE 


47 


CHAPTER  IV 
The  Influence  of  Hellenistic  Technique 

— A— 

Contributing  alike  to  Vergil's  thought  and  the  form  in 
which  he  clothes  it,  is  the  art  of  the  Aeneid,  as  Heinze  and 
Norden  have  traced  it:  "the  constructive  and  architectural 
power  which  was  part  of  his  own  gift  from  nature,  and  which  he 
slowly  developed  through  unceasing  study.  "^  This  art  Vergil 
owes  in  appreciable  measure  to  Hellenistic  fineness  of  percep- 
tion; for  he  adopted  certain  of  the  technical  expedients  of  his 
predecessors.  Thus,  for  example,  efifects  are  heightened  by  the 
employment  of  the  principle  of  contrast.  In  Theocritus,  also, 
light  is  contrasted  with  shadow:  realistic  with  heroic  narrative 
in  the  story  of  the  infant  Heracles,  comedy  with  tragedy  in  the 
Adoniazusae.  In  ApoUonius  the  secure  joy  of  the  Colchians  in 
possession  of  the  fleece  and  their  hope  of  safe  return  are  rudely 
broken  by  terror  at  the  anger  of  Zeus;  the  misery  of  the  Syrtes 
follows  hard  upon  wedding  joy;  grief  for  Idmon  and  Tiphys 
follows  the  mirth  of  the  feast.  The  vision  of  Apollo  at  dawn, 
the  sight  of  the  wretched  Phineus,  the  attack  of  the  bird  of 
Ares,  fall  with  sudden  joy,  pity,  and  fear  upon  the  heroes; 
the  stories  of  Medea,  the  earthborn  men,  the  sons  of  Phrixus, 
come  suddenly  before  the  readers. 

Again,  Carl  Newell  Jackson  has  remarked:^  "It  is  an  essen- 
tial feature  of  the  Alexandrian  school  of  poetry  to  allow  one 
literary  form  to  encroach  upon  the  province  of  another.  Hence 
the  epyllion  is  apt  to  be  a  complex  of  at  least  two  different  forms. 
The  twenty-fifth  poem  of  Theocritus,  for  instance,  is  really  an 
epic  idyl  within  a  pastoral  setting.  .  .  .  The  thirteenth  idyl, 
the  episode  of  Heracles  and  Hylas,  is  an  epyllion  set  in  an  elegiac 
frame.  ...  It  remained,  however,  for  the  Latin  poets,  ambi- 
tious to  be  original,  to  develop  this  idea  of  merging  two  forms 
in  one  poem,  or  rather  of  setting  one  form  within  another. 
In  his  sixty-fourth  poem  Catullus  has  put  the  lyric  lament  of 

*  Mackail,  Lectures  on  Poetry,  1911,  p.  55. 

*  Op.  cit.,  p.  42;  cf.  Mackail,  Lectures  on  Greek  Poetry,  1910,  p.  252. 

46 


Ariadne,  descriptive  entirely,  within  a  piece  of  pure  narrative, 
that  is,  a  romantic  within  an  epyllion  almost  heroic,  and  then, 
to  boot,  following  the  heroic  epyllion  an  epithalamium  which  is 
essentially  a  variation  of  the  elegiac  genus.  The  Aristaeus 
episode  in  the  fourth  book  of  the  Georgics  follows  a  somewhat 
similar  arrangement,  in  that  the  lament  of  Orpheus  is  preceded 
and  followed  by  the  Aristaeus  epyllion.  The  author  of  the 
Ciris  outdid  all  his  fellow-poets  by  combining  epic,  lyric,  and 
dramatic  elements,  and  then  adding  to  the  mixture  a  bit  of 
didactic  verse,  and  closing  this  effort  with  a  metamorphosis,  a 
form  distinct  in  itself.  Finally  in  the  Culex,  the  epyllion  lies 
side  by  side  with  the  pastoral.  None  of  these  poets,  it  would 
seem,  had  learned  the  Theocritean  or  the  Virgilian  art  (as  it 
appears  in  the  Aeneid)  of  weaving  these  separate  threads  into 
a  single  texture.  The  step  from  epic  to  lyric,  or  epic  to  pastoral, 
or  epic  to  elegy  is  too  abrupt,  with  the  result  that  unity  of  effect 
is  destroyed."  I  would  note  in  the  Aeneid  the  maturing  of  the 
art  of  that  same  poet  of  the  Ciris  and  the  Culex,  The  ninth  book 
of  the  Aeneid  might  be  taken  as  an  example  of  Vergil's  skilled 
mingling  of  the  various  threads  in  his  artistic  web.  Here  we  find 
the  didactic  element,  illustrated  in  the  description  of  the  sluggish 
Ganges  with  seven  mouths,  the  psychological  question  as  to 
whence  comes  fell  desire,  the  frigid  derivation  of  the  name 
Albani;  the  lyric  element  inspires  the  poet's  memorial  to 
the  fallen  heroes  and  the  cry  of  the  mother  over  her  son; 
the  dramatic  instinct  is  responsible  for  the  exciting  story  of  the 
capture  in  the  moonlight  which  filters  through  the  darkness  of 
the  wood. 

Another  detail  of  technique  seen  in  the  Aeneid ^  the  artistic 
introduction  of  ecphrasis,  is  rightly  referred  by  Heinze  to  Hellen- 
istic precedent.  Theocritus'  description  of  the  bowl  arouses  the 
desire  of  Thyrsis  to  sing,  and  the  erotic  and  rustic  characters 
described  are  entirely  in  keeping  with  the  shepherd's  life;  Mos- 
chus  in  the  story  of  Europa  chose  well  to  inscribe  on  his  bowl 
the  fate  of  lo;  the  mantle  of  Jason  is  described  in  order  to 
enhance  Hypsipyle's  desire,  and  Apollonius  was  careful  to  show 
Phrixus  and  the  fleece  in  the  embroideries  thereon.  The  influ- 
ence of  ecphrasis  upon  descriptive  narrative  is  interesting;  the 
expressions  at  parte  ex  alia  .  .  .  alia  parte  .  .  .  diversa  in 
parte  in  literary  descriptions  of  life  point  to  this  model,  and  one 


48 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


wonders  if  literary  contrast  was  furthered  by  the  scenes  con- 
trasted in  Hellenistic  embroideries  and  paintings.  How  strong 
this  influence  was  in  Latin  poetry  is  shown  both  in  actual  de- 
scription and  by  the  words  of  the  youthful  Vergil,  who  would 
gladly  weave  a  philosophic  song  to  Messalla's  glory  as  tapestries 
wove  the  fame  of  heroes  and  gods. 

In  this  ecphrasis  we  trace  one  of  the  most  prominent  details 
of  Vergil's  form:  concentration,  due  partly  to  Callimachus, 
partly,  as  Heinze  remarks,  to  the  practical  requirements  of 
recitation.  Vergil,  like  Apollonius,  begins  quickly  or  passes 
suddenly  from  the  heroic  to  the  erotic  sphere;  the  abrupt  transi- 
tions in  minor  details,  the  parenthetic  remarks,  and  the  neat 
proverbial  sa)dngs  of  the  Aeneid  point  to  the  Alexandrians  and 
the  Latin  neoteric  school.  Traces  of  the  Hellenistic  epigram 
can  at  times  also  be  found;  as  in  the  address  of  the  living  to  the 
dead,  Caieta  and  Palinurus  (VII,  1-4;  V,  870-871),  in  the  words 
of  the  spirit  of  Creusa  to  the  living  Aeneas  (II,  788-789),  in  the 
admonition  of  the  thrifty  host  Evander  to  his  guest  Aeneas 
(VIII,  364-365). 

The  neoterics,  in  following  this  standard  of  brevity,  made 
their  work  consist  of  a  number  of  loosely  connected  scenes. 
Catullus,  in  the  Peleus  and  Thetis,  turns  an  artistic  film  before 
us:  the  voyage  of  the  Argonauts:  the  preparations  for  the  mar- 
riage: the  story  of  Ariadne:  the  description  of  the  guests:  the 
song  of  the  Parcae— combine  to  form  what  has  well  been  called 
a  "mosaic,"  linked  by  short  connecting  passages.  The  Cidex 
consists  of  three  distinct  pictures:  the  shepherd's  noon-day  rest 
amid  his  flocks:  the  shepherd's  rescue:  the  description  of  Hades. 
Each  could  be  recited  separately  with  few  alterations.  The 
Ciris  can  be  broken  up  into  scenes  without  difficulty;  the  More- 
turn  and  the  Copa  are  examples  of  the  narrative  with  one  picture 
drawn  in  detail.  When  Vergil  wrote  the  Aeneid  he  had  learned 
how  to  combine  pictures  into  a  progressive  climax,  as  Heinze 
points  out  in  his  section  on  the  second  book;  scene  follows  scene, 
not  in  loosely  connected  sequence,  but  in  ever-increasing  ten- 
sion of  excitement.  The  narrative  is  linked  by  the  fact  that  one 
person,  an  onlooker  and  participator,  tells  all  the  parts.  Guided 
by  him,  we  come  from  without  the  dty  to  within  its  gates; 
from  the  house  of  Anchises,  remote  and  withdrawn,  into  the 
rush  of  the  highways;  from  the  centre  of  the  city  to  the  inner- 


INTLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  TECHNIQUE 


49 


most  penetralia  of  the  royal  palace,  where  interest  culminates 
in  the  death  of  Priam  amid  the  ruins  of  his  rule.  So  the  Aeneid 
itself  follows  the  fate  of  its  hero  from  utter  despair  through 
the  stages  of  increasing  hope  till  it  ends  in  the  overthrow  of  his 
last  enemy.  Vergil's  dramatic  instinct  is  at  work  here.  A 
simpler  instance  of  working  to  a  climax  is  noted  by  Heinze  in 
Book  IX,  569-574:« 

nioneus  saxo  atque  ingenti  fragmine  montis 

Lucetium,  portae  subeuntem  ignisque  ferentem, 

Emathiona  Liger,  Corynaeum  stemit  Asilas, 

hie  iaculo  bonus,  hie  longe  fallente  sagitta; 

Ortygium  Caeneus,  victorem  Caenea  Turaus, 

Tumus  Ityn  Cloniumque,  Dioxippum  Promolumque  .  .  . 

Heinze  remarks,  with  regard  to  this  passage,  that  "the  Hellenis- 
tic poets  certainly  followed  this  principle  (i.e.,  of  increasing 
concentration  for  effect)  in  their  longer  lists"  (of  details  of 
names);  and  compares  this  tendency  as  seen  in  TibuUus' 
description  of  life  in  the  Golden  Age  (I,  3,  37  ff.): 

nondum  caenileas  pinus  contempserat  undas, 

eflfusum  ventis  praebueratque  sinum, 
nee  vagus  ignotis  repetens  compendia  terns 

presserat  externa  navita  meree  ratem. 
illo  non  validus  subiit  iuga  tempore  tauruSf 

non  domito  f  renos  ore  momordit  equuSf 
non  domus  ulla  fores  habuit,  non  fixus  in  agris 

qui  regeret  certis  finibus  arva  lapis. 
ipsae  mella  dabant  quercus,  ultroque  ferebant 

obvia  securis  ubera  lactis  oves. 
non  acieSj  non  ira  fuit,  non  beUaj  nee  ensem 

.  inmiiti  saevus  duxerat  arte  faber. 
nune  love  sub  domino  caedes  et  vulnera  temper ^ 

nune  maref  nunc  leti  mille  repente  viae. 

In  like  manner  Apollonius  writes  with  growing  complexity 
(I,  1043ff.): 

airriip  ebfXfuKlris  TeXa/iUiy  /SeuriX^a  icar^ra. 
ISas  S'al  Upofika,  KXi/rioj  6*  *^hxivQop  Ixe^i^ev, 
Tw5ap{5ai  6*&fufxa  MeyaXoaaixea  ^\oyi6p  re. 

In  Heinze's  book  on  Vergil  there  is,  moreover,  a  suggestion 
that  part  of  Vergil's  artistic  technique  might  possibly  have  been 


»  Epische  Tecknik*  1915,  p.  220,  and  note  2. 


50 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


Stimulated  by  study  of  the  style  of  historical  narrative,  as  the 
Hellenistic  historians  wrote  it.  Further  light  is  thrown  on  this 
art  of  narration  by  the  critics  Polybius,  Dionysius  of  Halicar- 
nassus,  Diodorus,  and  Cicero.  Now  no  one  can  prove  that 
Vergil  owed  anything  of  his  technique  to  the  study  of  Hellenis- 
tic historiography;  but  because  there  is  a  certain  similarity  of 
art  in  the  two  cases,  I  think  it  worth  while  to  describe  briefly 
here  something  of  the  writings  of  Scheller  and  Schneider,  who 
have  studied  this  question  in  detail.* 

Many  of  the  precepts  of  the  Greek  or  Latin  critics  may  at 
once  be  excluded:  the  choosing  of  a  noble  subject,  the  aim  at  a 
well-knit  unity  of  action,  the  search  for  variety  in  subject  mat- 
ter, the  symmetrical  treatment  of  the  different  parts,  the 
avoidance  of  wearisome  digression,  may  all  be  safely  credited 
to  the  poet's  own  artistic  sense.  The  position  of  the  historian 
as  teacher  and,  by  example  deftly  pointed,  as  preacher,  is 
strongly  marked  in  these  Hellenistic  writers.  History  for  them 
has  a  moral  (usually,  it  is  true,  a  politically-moral)  aim;  whence 
spring  the  laudationes  and  vitupercUiones  which  formed  so  impor- 
tant a  part  of  their  technical  apparatus.  Diodorus  thus  con- 
fides to  us  his  policy:*  "Having,  throughout  the  whole  work, 
used  the  common  and  accustomed  liberty  of  an  historian,  we 
have  both  praised  the  good,  and  condemned  the  bad,  as  they 
have  fallen  in  our  way,  to  the  end  that  those  whose  genius  and 
inclination  prompts  them  to  virtue  may  be  the  more  encouraged 
to  noble  actions,  in  hopes  of  having  the  glory  of  their  names 
continued  to  all  succeeding  generations;  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  they  who  are  bent  to  wickedness  may  be  curbed  and 
restrained  from  the  heat,  at  least,  of  their  impiety,  by  those 
marks  of  dishonour  and  disgrace  fixed  upon  them"  (preface 
to  XV).  Polybius  repeatedly  avows  a  similar  motive:  "Of 
King  Attains,  who  now  died,  I  think  I  ought  to  speak  a  suitable 
word,  as  I  have  done  in  the  case  of  others.  .  .  .  This  king's 
greatness  of  mind  therefore  deserves  our  admiration,  be- 
cause ..."  (XVIII,  41).  "This  event  conveys  many  useful 
lessons  to  a  thoughtful  observer.     Above  all,  the  disaster  of 

*  See  Heinze,  ibid.y  p.  471,  and  note  1,  for  bibliography. 

•The  translations  used  in  this  section  are:  for  Diodorus,  that  of  Booth, 
1814;  for  Polybius,  that  of  Shuckburgh,  1889;  for  Dionysius,  that  of  Rhys 
Roberts,  1901. 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  TECHNIQUE 


51 


Regulus  gives  the  clearest  possible  warning  that  no  one  should 
feel  too  confident  of  the  favours  of  Fortune,  especially  in  the 
hour  of  success— I  record  these  things  in  the  hope  of  benefiting 
my  readers"  (I,  35).  "No  nobler  action  has  ever  been,  or  ever 
will  be  performed;  none  to  which  an  historian  could  better  draw 
his  reader's  attention — But  of  all  this  Phylarchus  says  not  a 
word,  being,  as  it  seems  to  me,  entirely  blind  as  to  all  that  is 
noblest  and  best  suited  to  be  the  theme  of  an  historian"  (II,  61). 
Dionysius  in  his  Antiquitates  puts  forward  a  similar  aim: 
hv  hi  Tp&irov  6  A6.pKLOi  kxpwo-TO  tols  TrpAY/iaat,  5uct6.to)P  irpoyros 
iiTrodeixBeLs,  Kal  Kdapov  olov  ireptWriKe  rg  dpxS,  avvrhyMS  veLpiiaontu 
8l€^>£€lv,  Tavra  iiyoifi^vos  dvai,  xP^yo^tAuu^ara  rots  iivay vuaofikvoLS, 
&  ToWijv  tinroplav  wape^ei  KoXm  Kal  (rvfi(f>€p6vT(t)v  irapadeiyfjArojv 
vonoSeTais  t€  Kai  8rinay(ayoLs  ...  (V.  75).  And  Cicero  carries  on 
the  tradition:  cum  et  reprehendes  ea,  quae  vituperanda  duces, 
et  quae  placebunt  exponendis  rationibus  comprobabis  (ad 
Fam,  V,  12,  4).« 

In  order  to  point  his  moral  intelligently  and  forcibly,  the 
historian  must  study  the  origin  and  motive  of  the  incidents 
he  records:— "What  is  really  educational  and  beneficial  to 
students  of  history  is  the  clear  view  of  the  causes  of  events" — 
(Polyb.  VI,  I);  and  the  personality  of  his  actors:  "It  is  strangely 
inconsistent  in  historians  ...  to  pass  over  in  complete 
silence  the  characteristics  and  aims  of  the  men  by  whom  the 
whole  thing  was  done,  though  these  in  fact  are  the  points  of  the 
greatest  value.  .  .  .  For  .  .  .  one  feels  more  roused  to  emula- 
tion and  imitation  by  men  that  have  life,  than  by  buildings 
that  have  none  .  .  ."  (X,  21).  Livy,  in  his  Preface,  shows  a 
similar  aim;  and  it  is  conceivable  that  Vergil,  too,  was  stimu- 
lated from  this  direction  by  the  general  Hellenistic  desire  of 
probing  into  causes,  motives,  and  character. 

Parallel  with  the  moral  aim  of  the  Hellenistic  historian  runs 
the  hedonistic:  the  desire  to  please  and  attract.  The  strength 
of  the  belief  in  the  value  of  this  policy  is  best  seen  in  Polybius. 
Though  the  most  sober  of  historians  he  yet  declares:  "Those 
who  are  engaged  on  representing  anything  either  to  eye  or  ear 
can  have  only  two  objects  to  aim  at — pleasure  and  profit" 
(XV,  36).    "Either  to  eye  or  ear" — this  implies  the  kvLpyti,a,  the 


•  See  Reitzenstein,  HelUnisUsche  WundererzSklungen,  1906,  pp.  84  ff. 


52 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


evidentia,   the   graphic   representation   based   on   imitation— 
filM^o-ts— of   the  living   actor.     This   €j/dp7eta,   above   all,   the 
Hellenistic  writer  longs  to  attain  that  he  may  stir  the  emotion 
of  his  readers.    Dionysius  calls  it  "the  first  of  the  extraneous 
excellences"  of  an  historian  {ad  Pomp.  Ill) :  and  well  sums  up 
its  theory  in  his  Antiquitates:  ^SeraL  y^p  if  StAwta  Travrds  kvBpoiTrov 
X€Lpay(ayovnkvrj  Sla  rdv  X^tojj/  kirl  ri  tpya,  Kal  fiii  iihvov  6xoi)ovaa 
tQv  Xeyofjikvcavj    dXXd   Kal   rd   TrpaTrbyitva  dpoxra    (XI,    1,    25  ff). 
Admiration,  anger,  sympathy,  are  to  be  called  forth,  if  the 
historian  fulfil  his  work  aright:  Polybius  strives  Iva  fiij  fi6vop 
eiyjrapoKoXoWriTOSy  dXXd  Kal  KarawXriKTiKii  ylvj\Tai  toIs   irpoakxovaiv 
ilhiiiynGi%  (IV,  28):  "without  knowing  these"  (i.e.,  the  causes 
of  catastrophes)  he  declares  "it  is  impossible  to  feel  the  due  indig- 
nation or  pity  at  anything  which  occurs"  (II,  56).     Personal 
touches  are  to  enhance  the  effect:  "those  who  have  gone  through 
no  such  course  of  actual  experience  produce  no  genuine  enthusi- 
asm in  the  minds  of  their  readers"  (XII,  25,  h);  marveUous  tales 
of  descriptions  of  the  vagaries  of  Fortune  may  stimulate  the 
reader's  interest.      "I  thought  it,   therefore,"    says  Polybius, 
"distinctly  my  duty  neither  to  pass  by  myself,  nor  allow  any  one 
else  to  pass  by,  without  full  study,  a  characteristic  specimen  of 
the  dealings  of  Fortune  at  once  brilliant  and  instructive  in 
the  highest  degree.    For  fruitful  as  Fortune  is  in  change,  and 
constantly  as  she  is  producing  dramas  in  the  life  of  men,  yet 
never  assuredly  before  this  did  she  work  such  a  marvel,  or 
act  such  a  drama,  as  that  which  we  have  witnessed"  (I,  4). 
We  remember  Cicero's  similar  words:  nihil  est  enim  aptius  ad 
delectationem  lectoris  quam  temporum  varietates  fortunaeque 
vicissitudines   {ad  Fam.  V,   12,  4).     History,  in  short,  may 
become  a  drama:  habet  enim  varios  actus  mutationesque  et 
consiliorum  et  temporum;  in  which  the  varying  fortunes  of  the 
hero  are  to  carry  our  hearts  through  the  whole  gamut  of  emo- 
tion: viri  saepe  excellentis  ancipites   variique  casus  habent 
admirationem,    expectationem,    laetitiam,    molestiam,    spem, 
timorem:  si  vero  exitu  notabili  concluduntur,  expletur  animus 
iucundissima  lectionis  voluptate. 

Such  is  the  canon  laid  down  for  the  Hellenistic  historiog- 
rapher, and  its  roots  lie  in  the  spirit  of  the  Hellenistic  life. 
Around  the  basic  idea  of  Personality  are  grouped  the  laudationes^ 
the  vituperationes  which  shall  give  practical  aid  to  men  in 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  TECHNIQUE 


53 


furthering  their  ends,  the  vivid  pictures  of  the  changing  for- 
tunes of  conspicuous  characters,  the  portrayal  of  magnificence 
and  marvel  which  shall  awake  wonder,  of  suffering  and  kindness 
which  shall  arouse  sympathy  and  love.  No  less  self-conscious 
than  the  Hellenistic  poet  is  the  historian  in  whose  power  lie 
the  characters  of  the  men  he  describes,  and  the  hearts  of  the 
readers  he  instructs  and  moves  to  feeling  at  his  will. 

The  sources  of  these  precepts  lie  in  the  movements  started 
by  Isocrates  and  Aristotle.  To  Xenophon  and  Isocrates,  as 
Leo  has  noted,  is  due  the  introduction  of  the  biographical 
epilogue,  which  was  to  be  found  afterward  in  the  work  of 
Ephorus  and  Theopompus.  It  sprang  partly  from  the  personal 
interest  in  his  subject  natural  to  an  orator,  partly  from  the 
interest  in  personality  remarked  above.  The  theory,  as  Heinze 
and  Scheller  point  out,  that  history  must  exert  a  moral  influence 
on  its  readers,  can  be  traced  to  Isocrates.^  Oratorical  training 
is  revealed  also  in  the  care  with  which  Ephorus  and  Theopom- 
pus, in  obedience  to  their  master,  strove  to  vary  their  historical 
work  by  digressions — irapeic/Sdaets — that  their  readers  might  be 
duly  entertained.  The  practices  of  the  epideictic  school  of 
oratory  and  of  those  historiographers  influenced  by  it  are  well 
described  by  Cicero — Orator  19,  65;  sophistarum,  de  quibus 
supra  dixi,  magis  distinguenda  similitudo  videtur,  qui  omnes 
eosdem  volunt  flores  quos  adhibet  orator  in  causis  persequi. 
Sed  hoc  differunt  quod,  cum  sit  eis  propositum  non  perturbare 
animos,  sed  placare  potius,  nee  tam  persuadere  quam  delectare, 
et  apertius  id  faciunt  quam  nos  et  crebrius,  concinnas  magis 
sententias  exquirunt  quam  probabilis,  a  re  saepe  discedunt, 
intexunt  fabulas,  verba  altius  transferunt  eaque  ita  disponunt 
ut  pictores  varietatem  colorum,  paria  paribus  referunt,  adversa 
contrariis,  saepissimeque  similiter  extrema  definiunt.  Huic 
generi  historia  finitima  est,  in  qua  et  narratur  ornate  et  regio 
saepe  aut  pugna  describitur;  interponuntur  etiam  contiones  et 
hortationes,  sed  in  his  tracta  quaedam  et  fluens  expetitur,  non 
haec  contorta  et  acris  oratio.  .  .  .  From  the  orator,  Isocrates, 
then,  springs  a  school  of  historiography  that  seeks  the  pleasure 
of  its  public.®    Aristotle,  on  the  other  hand,  starts  the  quest  of 

'  Heinze,  op.  cU.y  pp.  475  f. 

■  Wachsmuth,  Ueber  Ziele  und  Meihoden  der  griech.  Gesch.  schreibungf 
1897,  p.  15  f. 


54 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


the  individual  after  knowledge,  first  of  science,  then  of  the 
history  of  science  and  of  scientific  men;  hence  arises  a  like 
interest  in  men  and  manners  springing  from  an  absolutely 
different  source  from  that  of  Isocrates'  school,  the  desire  to 
learn  the  truth  rather  than  the  desire  to  please.  Leo  cites  the 
story  of  Peisistratus  and  the  labourer,  and  the  characterization 
of  Peisistratus  and  his  deeds  in  the  noXtrcia  *AdrjvaUjjv  as  fore- 
shadowing the  biographical  etSos:  a  student  of  Aristotle, 
Aristoxenus,  introduced  the  literary  biographies — /Slot — which 
influenced  so  strongly  peripatetic  historiography.  From 
Aristotle,  as  Leo  notes,  sprang  the  method  which  told  the 
irpA{€ts  of  an  individual  and  allowed  the  fjdos  which  characterized 
him  to  be  inferred  from  them.  As  Aristotle  prescribed — 
1179al8 — t6  8^a\rjdls  kv  toIs  tpoktols  be  tu>v  tpywv  koX  roO  fiiov 
KpLverai.'  kv  roinois  ydip  t6  icbpvov — ,  so  Theophrastus  wrote  his 
Characters,  and  so  wrote  the  post-Aristotelian  historians,  in 
distinction  from  the  Alexandrian,  from  Polybius,  and  from 
Suetonius,  who  definitely  describe  the  ^^o$  of  their  individual 
men. 

Yet  Aristotle  was  the  rhetorician  no  less  than  the  student  of 
science;  and  to  this  fact  is  due  the  ultimate  reconciliation 
between  the  schools  of  Aristotle  and  Isocrates  in  the  headlong 
pursuit  of  ^uxa7a)7ia,  as  embodied  in  the  writing  of  the  peripa- 
tetic Duris  and  of  Phylarchus.  The  arousing  of  emotions  in  the 
heart  of  the  spectator  is  the  fundamental  principle  of  the  Poetics; 
4vAp7€ia,  filnricnsy  the  working  of  Fortune  in  the  TrcpiTrcrcta, 
the  calculated  effect  of  t6  wap&do^v,  the  due  care  that  the 
Xcfts,  eav  J  iradriTucii  t€  Kal  rfiucffj  shall  represent  t6  irpkirovy  either 
of  circumstance,  age,  or  sex — all  these  are,  as  everyone  knows, 
prescribed  in  Aristotle's  theories  of  art. 

If  we  turn  now  from  the  theory  of  these  critics  to  the  practice 
of  the  Hellenistic  historiographers,  we  may  discover  traces  of 
the  principle  prodesse  et  delectare  even  amid  the  scanty  frag- 
ments of  their  writings.  Concrete  examples  of  vice  and  virtue 
appear  in  the  work  of  Ephorus-Diodorus.  ^^yKoiynjov  and 
^670$  are  found  in  Theopompus,  the  follower  of  Isocrates  (Polyb. 
VIII,  11  f.),  who  wrote  a  PhUippi  Laudatio,  and  yet  is 
vehemently  upbraided  by  Polybius  for  his  unrestrained  vituper- 
alio  PhUippi  in  the  forty-ninth  book  of  the  Philippica;  he  also 
wrote  a  De  Pietate,  and  told  in  the  Philippica  of  extravagant 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  TECHNIQUE 


55 


living  and  its  hapless  end.  Phylarchus  praises  Cleomenes: 
raOra  nkv  ijpXv  kS^}<iOff€  ($6Xapxo$),  PovX6fievos  U7ro5€tJat  rifv  KKeofir 
kyovs  fjL€yaSa^vxiav  Kal  fjLeTpi&njra  vp^  roifs  iroXefilovs  (Polyb.  II,  61); 
he  describes  the  drunkenness  of  the  Byzantii  (Fr.  10),  and  of  the 
Colophonii  (Fr.  62),  and  the  reverent  absence  of  wine  from  the 
oblations  of  the  worshippers  of  the  Sun  (Fr.  24).  Philochorus 
warns  his  readers  in  vino  Veritas  (Fr.  20);  Clearchus  in  his  Lives 
tells  of  the  degeneration  of  the  Tarentines  from  indulgence  to 
open  sin,  and  the  ensuing  punishment  sent  by  the  wrath  of  the 
gods  (Fr.  9;  cf.  Fr.  10).  Trogus,  whose  Hellenistic  characteris- 
tics Schneider  has  pointed  out  in  detail,  affords  us  an  excellent 
example  of  this  tendency.  He  examines  the  Tpoaipecns — princi- 
ple of  conduct  or  life:  the  bravery  of  Lysimachus  (XV,  3),  the 
temperance  of  Hannibal,  which  brought  its  own  reward 
(XXXII,  4,  10  ff.):  as  the  vice  of  Ptolemy  Philopator  ended 
in  disaster  (XXX,  I):  spoliassetque  regno  Antiochum,  si 
fortunam  virtute  iuvisset.  Sed  .  .  .  (here  follows  the  descrip- 
tion of  his  wickedness,  and  the  moral) :  haec  primo  laborantis 
regiae  tacita  pestis  et  occulta  mala  fuere.  Similarly,  the  flight 
of  Ptolemy  Philometor  is  directly  traced  to  his  sloth  and 
over-indulgence  of  sensual  appetite  (XXXIV,  2,  7  f.).  The 
comparison,  in  point  of  morals,  between  man  and  man — or 
between  nation  and  nation — received  its  impulse  from  Poseidon- 
ius,  was  fostered  by  Panaetius  and  Polybius,  and  came  to 
maturity  in  Nepos,  Cicero,  and  Plutarch.  That  the  reader's 
moral  and  mental  horizon  may  be  widened,  descriptions  of  the 
customs  of  various  peoples  are  frequently  introduced:  of  the 
Sybarites  by  Timaeus  (Fr.  60);  of  the  Scythians,  of  Sicily,  of  the 
Macedonians,  of  Spain,  by  Trogus.  Poseidonius,  especially, 
delighted  in  pursuing  investigations  touching  the  history  of 
countries  and  peoples;  later  on  appeared  the  monographs  of 
Caesar  and  Tacitus.  Historians  proper  wrote  separate  treatises 
of  this  kind — as  Philochorus'  books  on  ritual  observances,  and 
Duris'  De  moribus  et  instittUis,  Akin  to  all  this  examination  into 
motive  and  custom  is  the  aetiological  element.  Timaeus 
discusses  the  philological  meaning  of  Sardonic  laughter;  Phy- 
larchus, that  of  Bosphorus  and  of  Serapis;  Philochorus,  that 
of  Areopagus  and  of  sundry  other  words.  Duris  shows  the 
same  tendency  (Fragg.  16,  25,  34);  Schneider  points  out  abun- 
dant instances  in  Trogus.  Parallel  with  the  curiosity  as  to  names 


56 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


is  the  zeal  for  interpreting  the  motives  of  men.  The  study  of 
motives  revealed  in  Diodorus  XIX-XX  may  well  be  derived 
from  Duns.  Trogus  prefers  to  dwell  on  the  events  that  precede 
war  rather  than  to  give  military  details;  Sempronius  Asellio 
(Cell.  N,  A.Wy  18,  8f.)  declares  that,  in  distinction  from  the 
older  Roman  annalists,  who  were  content  to  write  dry  records  of 
history:  nobis  non  modo  satis  esse  video,  quod  factum  esset, 
id  pronuntiare,  sed  etiam,  quo  consilio  quaque  ratione  gesta 
assent,  demonstrare.  Then  follows  explicitly  the  moral  motive: 
nam  neque  alacriores  ad  rem  p.  defendundam,  neque  segniores 
ad  rem  perperam  faciundam  annales  libri  commovere  quicquam 
possunt.  scribere  autem  bellum  initum  quo  consule  et  quo 
confectum  sit  et  quis  triumphans  introierit  ex  eo  et  eo  libro 
quae  in  bello  gesta  sint  non  praedicare  aut  interea  quid  senatus 
decreverit  aut  quae  lex  rogatiove  lata  sit  neque  quibus  consiliis 
ea  gesta  sint  iterare:  id  fabulaspueris  est  narrare,  non  historias 
scribere.  I  think  here  we  may  fairly  see  Hellenistic  influence. 
At  times  the  historian  comes  forward  in  his  own  person  to  point 
the  moral:  the  Lydians,  Trogus  declares,  owed  their  fall  to 
their  own  lack  of  discipline  (I,  7,  13);  the  failure  of  Dionysius' 
attack  on  the  men  of  Croton  is  pointed  with  the  remark:  tan- 
tum  virtutis  paupertas  adversum  insolentes  divitias  habet — 
(XX,  5,  3);  fear  of  the  gods  kept  the  king  of  Phrygia  more 
safely  than  force  of  arms  (XI,  7,  14).  To  this  we  may  add  the 
use  of  the  story  for  the  purpose  of  instruction,  as  it  is  employed 
in  Euhemerus'  phantasy  to  declare  the  author's  views  on 
the  gods  and  on  an  ideal  government.* 

More  interesting  than  the  moral  tendency,  is  the  desire  of 
these  men  to  attract,  and  to  excite  the  emotions  of  their  readers. 
On  the  milder  side,  descriptions  of  wedding-feasts,  calculated  to 
give  a  pleasure  like  that  produced  by  society  records  of  modem 
times,  formed  already  part  of  the  history  of  Alexander's  court 
(as  in  Chares:  Geier,  pp.  302  ff.,  Fragg.  16,  17).  But,  further, 
in  these  historians,  scenes  of  horror  are  related,  and  stories  of 
barbarous  cruelty  given  in  detail.  Plutarch  accuses  Duris  of 
exaggeration  for  "tragic"  effect  in  his  narrative  of  the  surrender 
of  the  Samians  to  Pericles  {Per.  28,  trans.  Perrin):  "To  these 

•Rajrmond  de  Block,  6uhimire,  Son  livre  et  sa  doctriney  1876,  pp.  55  f. 
So  Hecatacus  teaches  the  "Ideale  seiner  Zeit"  under  the  guise  of  Egyptian  his- 
tory: Wendland,  Hdlen.-Rom.  Kultur*  1912,  pp.  116  f. 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  TECHNIQUE 


57 


details  Duris  the  Samian  adds  stuff  for  tragedy,  accusing  the 
Athenians  and  Pericles  of  great  brutality,  which  is  recorded 
neither  by  Thucydides  nor  Ephorus  nor  Aristotle.  But  he 
appears  not  to  speak  the  truth  when  he  says,  forsooth,  that 
Pericles  had  the  Samian  trierarchs  and  marines  brought  into 
the  market-place  of  Miletus  and  crucified  there,  and  that  then, 
when  they  had  already  suffered  grievously  for  ten  days,  he  gave 
orders  to  break  their  heads  in  with  clubs  and  make  an  end  of 
them,  and  then  cast  their  bodies  forth  without  burial  rites. 
At  all  events,  since  it  is  not  the  wont  of  Duris,  even  in  cases 
where  he  has  no  private  and  personal  interest,  to  hold  his 
narrative  down  to  the  fundamental  truth,  it  is  all  the  more 
likely  that  here,  in  this  instance,  he  has  given  a  dreadful  por- 
trayal of  the  calamities  of  his  country,  that  he  might  calunmiate 
the  Athenians. '*  If,  as  is  most  probable,  Diodorus  drew  upon 
Duris  for  his  history  of  Agathocles  in  Books  XIX-XXI,  we  can 
see  clear  indications  of  Duris'  appetite  for  gruesome  story  and 
dramatic  detail.  We  may  compare  with  the  above  quotation 
the  criticism  of  Polybius  on  Phylarchus'  description  of  the 
sufferings  of  the  Mantineans  (II,  56):  "It  was  his"  (i.e.,  Phy- 
larchus*)  "object  to  bring  into  prominence  the  cruelty  of 
Antigonus  and  the  Macedonians,  as  well  as  that  of  Aratus  and 
the  Achaeans;  and  he  accordingly  asserts  that,  when  Mantinea 
fell  into  their  hands,  it  was  cruelly  treated;  and  that  the  most 
ancient  and  important  of  all  the  Arcadian  towns  was  involved  in 
calamities  so  terrible  as  to  move  all  Greece  to  horror  and  tears. 
And  being  eager  to  stir  the  hearts  of  his  readers  to  pity,  and  to 
enlist  their  sympathies  by  his  story,  he  talks  of  women  embrac- 
ing, tearing  their  hair,  and  exposing  their  breasts;  and  again 
of  the  tears  and  lamentations  of  men  and  women,  led  off  into 
captivity  along  with  their  children  and  aged  parents."  Plu- 
tarch makes  a  similar  statement  (Them,  XXXII,  trans.  Perrin) 
with  regard  to  the  body  of  Themistocles — "and  Phylarchus,  too, 
when,  as  if  in  a  tragedy,  he  all  but  erects  a  theatrical  machine 
for  this  story,  and  brings  into  the  action  a  certain  Neocles, 
forsooth,  and  Demopolis,  sons  of  Themistocles,  wishes  merely 
to  stir  up  tumultuous  emotion;  his  tale  even  an  ordinary  person 
must  know  is  fabricated."  The  fragments  themselves  show 
evidence  of  pathetic  tales:  in  Phylarchus,  that  of  the  heroic 
Danae,  dying  to  save  him  she  loved  (Fr.  23):  of  the  dreadful 


58 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


death  of  Aristomachus,  tyrant  of  the  Argives  (Fr.  52);  in  Tima- 
eus,  the  fate  of  Dido  (Fr.  23). 

Of  equal  importance  in  this  connection  are  love-tales. 
Four  of  the  stories  of  Parthenius'  Erotica  (15,  23,  25,  31)  are 
attributed  by  M  tiller  to  Phylarchus,  though  only  one  of  these 
is  assigned  by  him  to  the  Histories.*®  Timaeus  aflFords  one 
story  (Par.  Erot,  29).  Seven  of  the  fragments  of  Duris  deal  with 
matters  of  love  or  sex  (Frs.  2,  3, 19,  27,  35,  42,  63);  he  attributes 
the  punishment  of  Prometheus  to  his  love  for  Athene  (Fr.  19), 
and  the  Samian  and  Peloponnesian  Wars  to  Aspasia  (Fr.  58). 

Yet  another  natural  means  of  arousing  emotion  lies  in  the 
introduction  of  the  marvellous.  As  we  have  noted  before, 
vapiido^a  and  mirabilia  were  the  passion  of  the  Hellenistic  Age; 
t6  hk  davnaardv  ijdh'  (rrjfielov  64,  ttAvtcs  y^p  TpoarMvTts  iLTayyeK' 
Xoucrtv  cos  xaptf^^Mc^'ot.**  Cicero  speaks  of  the  "innumerable 
fables"  of  Theopompus  {de  legg,  I,  I,  5),  whose  stories  earned 
the  name  of  Thaumasia — "Book  of  Wonder."  Strabo  (ch. 
814)  accuses  Callisthenes — irpoaTpaycfidei  8i  to{)tols — for  his  tale  of 
portent;  Poly  bins  (XII,  24)  notes  Timaeus'  propensity  for 
marvels:  "In  attacking  others  he  shows  great  acuteness  and 
boldness;  when  he  comes  to  independent  narrative,  he  is  full 
of  dreams,  miracles,  incredible  myths — in  a  word,  of  miserable 
superstition  and  old  wives'  tales";  compare  his.  history  of 
Diomedes  (Fr.  13),  and  his  tales  of  the  miracle  of  the  river's 
healing  power  (Fr.  15),  of  the  kindly  cicada  (Fragg.  64,  65). 
Megasthenes  is  full  of  the  marvels  of  India;  and  his  presentation 
of  them  is  strongly  condemned  by  Strabo:  8iaxl>ep6vT(as  5'd7rt(r- 
relv  8iu)v  ArjLfjLax(^  re  Kcd  Meyaadkvei.  ovtol  y&p  elcLV  oi  tovs  'Ej'coto- 
KoLras  Kal  tovs  ^AarSfiovs  Kal  "Appivas  laropovvTts,  ^ovo^BikkyLOvs  re 
KoX  MoKpoaKeXeis  koL  '07rt(7do6axruXow  (ch.  70).  Duris  falls  under 
the  like  condemnation  from  Didymus  (on  Dem,  col.  12,  50): 
U€i  yap  airrbv  K&vravda  TepaTiifaeoBai :  the  fragments  of  Phylar- 
chus' work  contain  stories  of  marvel  after  marvel.  So  Theopom- 
pus in  his  narrative  of  the  Meropes ;  so  Euhemerus,  lambulus, 
and  Hecataeus  all  added  a  touch  of  ^romance  and  a  wealth  of 
imaginary  detail  in  their  description  of  far-ojff  lands;  Antigonus, 
Myrsilus,  Philostephanus  and  others  wrote  Wonderbooks. 
Dreams,  oracles,  portents  were  found  recorded  side  by  side 

»•  Cf .  Rohde,  Gr.  R.  p.  55. 
"  AristoUe,  A,  P.,  1460a. 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  TECHNIQUE 


59 


with  accounts  of  physical  phenomena;  even  the  history  of 
Hannibal  is  embellished  with  dreams  and  nightly  visions  of  the 
god. 

Lastly,  the  Hellenistic  historians  delight  in  dramatic  scenes. 
Duris,  whose  interest  in  the  stage  is  shown  by  his  works  on 
tragic  writers  and  tragedy,  announces  in  his  first  book:  "Ei^pos 
6^  Kal  QedTOfjLTos  tu>v  yevofikvojv  TrXelcTTOv  dTrcXet^^o'aj'*  odre  ydp 
fUfJLrjcecos  p^TtKafiov  ovSe/XLcis  o(fT€  iidovfjs  kv  tc^  <f>p6L&ai,y  avrov  8^  rod 
ypL4>€i,v  pjbvov  eireneKifdriaav  .  .  .  MlfirjaLSy  then,  graphic  imitation 
of  life,  is  his  object.  Therefore  he  pictures  vividly  in  his  His- 
tories the  appearance  or  dress  of  his  people;  no  fewer  than  nine 
fragments  deal  with  this.  The  story  of  the  triumphant  return 
of  Alcibiades  from  exile  gives  a  good  instance  of  Duris'  method 
(Plut.  Ale,  32,  trans.  Perrin):  "Duris  the  Samian,  who  claims 
that  he  was  a  descendant  of  Alcibiades,  gives  some  additional 
details.  He  says  that  the  oarsmen  of  Alcibiades  rowed  to  the 
music  of  a  flute  blown  by  Chrysogonus  the  Pythian  victor; 
that  they  kept  time  to  a  rhythmic  call  from  the  lips  of  Callip- 
ides,  the  tragic  actor;  that  both  these  artists  were  arrayed  in 
the  long  tunics,  flowing  robes,  and  other  adornment  of  their 
profession;  and  that  the  commander's  ship  put  into  harbours 
with  a  sail  of  purple  hue,  as  though,  after  a  drinking  bout,  he 
were  off  on  a  revel.  But  neither  Theopompus,  nor  Ephorus, 
nor  Xenophon  mentions  these  things,  nor  is  it  likely  that 
Alcibiades  put  on  such  airs  for  the  Athenians,  to  whom  he  was 
returning  after  he  had  suffered  exile  and  many  great  adversities." 
Xenophon  does  not  relate  these  details.  Anecdotes,  little 
touches  which  reveal  personal  character,  appear  in  the  frag- 
ments of  the  work  of  Duris  (4,  14,  22);  quotation  of  actual 
sayings  in  those  of  Phylarchus  (8,  18,  40a). ^^ 

Tragic  technique  on  Hellenistic  lines  is  pointed  out  by 
Schneider  in  Pompeius  Trogus.     '^KTrXryfts  is  aroused  by  t6 


"  Lauckner,  Die  Kiinst  und  polit.  Zide  d.  Monographic  Sallusts  uber  d. 
Jug.  Krieg,  1911,  pp.  59  flf.,  sees  in  Plutarch's  Life  of  Cleomenes  a  good  example 
of  Phylarchus'  dramatic  technique  of  this  kind.  Cf.  R.  Schubert,  Die  Quellen 
Plutarchs,  Jahrb.  fur  kl.  Phil.,  Supp.  Bd.,  JX  (1878),  pp.  709  ff.,.  who  suspects 
the  hand  of  Duris  in  the  Life  of  Demetrius.  Schwartz  also  remarks  the  vivid 
painting,"of  which  no  modern  historical  novel  need  be  ashamed,"  of  Phylarchus, 
in  the  Life  of  Cleomenes  (FUnf  Vortrdge  Uber  den  griech.  Roman,  1896,  pp. 
114  ff.). 


60 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


/Lii^w5€s,  as  in  the  narrative  of  Lysimachus*  achievements 
(XV,  3),  of  the  career  of  Agathocles  (XXII,  If.),  and  of  Mithri- 
dates  (XXXVII,  2);  by  t6  kuTaSks,  pictured  in  such  pitiful 
stories  as  we  have  seen;  by  t6  irapdXcryov,  the  unexpected,  such 
as  the  passage  in  XXVII,  2 :  Post  discessum  Ptolomei  Seleucus 
cum  ad  versus  civitates,  quae  defecerant,  ingentem  classem 
conparasset,  repente  velut  diis  ipsis  parricidium  vindicantibus 
orta  tempestate  classem  naufragio  amittit;  nee  quicquam  illi 
ex  tanto  adparatu  praeter  nudum  corpus  et  spiritum  et  paucos 
naufragii  comites  residuos  fortuna  fecit.  Misera  quidem  res, 
sed  optanda  Seleuco  fuit;  siquidem  civitates,  quae  odio  eius 
ad  Ptolomeum  transierant,  velut  diis  arbitris  satis  factum  sibi 
esset,  repentina  animorum  mutatione  in  naufragi  misericordiam 
versae  imperio  se  eius  restituunt.  Other  examples  of  irtpiTkrtia. 
are  the  fate  of  Arsinoe's  sons  in  the  midst  of  her  marriage 
festivities  (XXIV,  3),  where  we  notice  the  poetical  detail: 
Pro  filiis  saepe  se  percussoribus  obtulit,  frequenter  corpore  suo 
puerorum  corpora  amplexata  protexit  vulneraque  excipere, 
quae  liberis  intendebantur,  voluit.  Ad  postremum  etiam 
spoliata  funeribus  filiorum  scissa  veste  et  crinibus  sparsis  cum 
duobus  servulis  ex  urbe  protracta  Samothraciam  in  exilium 
abiit,  eo  miserior,  quod  mori  ei  cum  filiis  non  licuit;  and  the 
change  of  fortune  of  Lysimachus,  consequent  upon  his  murder 
of  Agathocles:  Haec  illi  prima  mali  labes,  hoc  initium  inpen- 
dentis  ruinae  fuit  (XVII,  1).  This  careful  noting  of  cause  and 
effect  Trogus  shares  with  Livy  and  Vergil. 

To  the  reader,  then,  who  compares  these  notes  with  the 
detailed  description  given  by  Heinze  of  Vergil^s  workmanship, 
it  might  appear  not  impossible  that  the  natural  genius  of  the 
eager  student,  not  only  of  men  but  of  their  ways  and  of  their 
artistic  devices  for  portraying  life  and  manners,  was  streng- 
thened by  finding  either  directly  or  through  the  agency  of  the 
later  Roman  Annalists,^'  an  aim  and  method  similar  to  his  own. 
The  Aeneid,  as  Heinze  shows  by  exhaustive  detail,  is  a  story  of 
mental  and  spiritual  struggle;  its  her6  is  an  example  to  other 
men  who  are  striving  to  fulfil  their  moral  destiny.     Moral 

^  See  Zamcke,  DerEinflussdergriech.  Lit.  auf  die  Entwicldung  der  r'om.  Prosa: 
Comm.  Ribbeckianae,  1888,  p.  316.  For  traces  of  a  technique  in  Livy  somewhat 
similar  to  that  of  Vergil  see  Witte,  Ueber  die  Form  der  Darstellung  in  Livius* 
Geschichtswerk,  Rh.  Mus.y  LXV  (1910),  pp.  283  fif. 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  TECHNIQUE 


61 


factors,  rather  than  external  accident,  decide  the  day;  mock 
contests  and  real  battles  are  won  by  strength  of  mind  and  will, 
lives  are  lost  in  failure  resulting  from  motives  of  folly.  Each 
character — and  Vergil  tries  to  concentrate, on  a  few  that  these 
may  live  more  really — is  brought  home  to  the  reader's  heart  by 
his  acts,  and  his  speeches;  Vergil,  like  Livy,^*  followed  this 
indirect  method  of  characterization  as  more  dramatic  and  effec- 
tive. No  man  is  wholly  good  at  the  start:  Aeneas  fights  his  way 
to  perfection;  no  man  is  wholly  bad:  Mezentius  loves  his  son; 
Latinus,  for  all  his  cowardice,  will  not  break  his  plighted  word. 
And  that  Vergil  may  win  his  reader,  he  pictures  all  emotions 
common  to  man:  terror,  surprise,  wonder,  pity,  reverence, 
awe,  gratitude,  love.  IleptTrercta  falls  to  all  the  more  noble 
characters,  that  we  may  grieve  over  the  fate  that  follows  upon 
happiness,  a  fate  the  more  pathetic  if  it  is  the  outcome  of  weak- 
ness of  some  sort:  the  fate  that  overtakes  Priam  and  the 
Trojans  in  Troy,  Aeneas  in  Latium,  and  Nisus  and  Euryalus 
on  the  battle-field.  The  narrative  from  beginning  to  end  is 
steeped  in  the  life  given  by  the  touch  of  colour;  physical  details 
of  dress,  of  habit,  of  surrounding,  spiritual  details  of  mood  and 
temperament,  form  the  hvLpytia  which  enlivens  the  picture.  At 
least  we  may  say  that  that  same  spirit  which  animated  the 
followers  of  Aristotle  is  seen  in  its  height  in  Vergil — to  work 
without  stint  that  his  story  may  be  a  living  whole. 

— B— 

When  Vergil,  as  every  one  knows,  spent  his  day  polishing 
and  repolishing  a  few  lines  of  verse,  we  are  not  to  imagine  that 
he  called  to  his  aid  any  handbook  or  textbook  of  Hellenistic 
poetry.  He  worked  according  to  his  own  sense  of  what  read 
and  sounded  well.  But  there  is  no  doubt  that  his  sense  had  been 
most  carefully  trained;  the  impatience  with  which  he  throws 
away  rhetoric  in  the  fifth  poem  of  the  Catalepton,  as  he  after- 
wards rejects  Alexandrian  mythology  in  the  beginning  of  the 
third  Georgic,^^  shows  how  thorough  and  how  general  was  the 
education  in  these  subjects. 


**  Stimulated,  very  probably,  by  the  Roman  Annalists:  Bnins,  Die  PersSn- 
lichkeit  in  der  Gesch.  sckreibung  der  Allen,  1898,  pp.  63  fif. 

«  See  Wight  Dufif,  Literary  History  of  Rome,  1909,  p.  450. 


62 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  TECHNIQUE 


63 


It  is,  however,  very  rash  to  select  instances  from  the  Aeneid 
(other  than  verbal  imitations)  and  assert  that  they  were  defin- 
itely modelled  after  Hellenistic  poetry  or  rhetoric;  the  most,  I 
think,  we  can  say  is  that  Vergil's  training  had  made  him  highly 
conscious  of  the  possibilities  of  artistic  diction,  and  that  pic- 
torial turns  of  narrative  (which  do  occur  in  older  Greek  prose 
and  poetry)  are  more  deliberately  chosen  by  him,  in  consequence 
of  this  training,  to  adorn  his  story.  For  instance:  Demetrius, 
whoever  he  was  (according  to  Rhys  Roberts,  not  Demetrius 
of  Phalerum,but  a  writer,  very  possibly,  of  the  first  century  of 
our  era),  drew  up  a  manual  De  docutione,^^  containing  examples 
of  rhetorical  expression  culled  from  preceding  writers — Homer, 
Plato,  Xenophon — together  with  some  principles  as  to  the 
purpose  of  these  expressions.  A  number  of  these  examples  can 
be  paralleled  by  passages  from  the  Aeneid, 

(1)  {Dem,  7  f.).  A  short  member  represents  vigour.  "As 
a  wild  beast  gathers  itself  together  for  the  attack,"  wrote 
Demetrius,  "so  should  discourse  gather  itself  together  as  in  a 
coil  in  order  to  increase  its  vigour."  In  Vergil,  brevity  expresses 
vigour  in  the  swoop  of  the  attack:  Fit  via  vi  (II,  494);  in  the 
crash  of  the  trumpet,  and  in  the  display  of  the  signal: 

classica  iamque  sonant;  it  bello  tessera  signum  (VII,  637); 

brevity  expresses  haste  in  the  sudden  descent  of  night:  Ponto 
nox  incubat  atra  (I,  89);  in  the  forward  leap  of  the  boatmen: 
Haud  mora,  prosiluere  suis  (V,  140);  in  the  dash  of  Nisus: 
Nisus  abit  (IX,  386);  in  the  distracted  darting  to  and  fro  in 
terror  of  capture:  Diversi  circumspiciunt  (IX,  416).  Surprise 
needs  words  equally  few:  e.g.,  the  thrill  of  the  vision:  Obsti- 
puit  visu  Aeneas  (V,  90).  Likewise  note  the  emphasis  secured 
through  brevity:  in  the  indignation  of  Venus:  Navibus  (infan- 
dum)  amissis  (I,  251);  or  of  Juno:  Quippe  vetor  fatis  (I,  39); 
and  in  the  decision  of  the  oracle:  Mutandae  sedes  (III,  161). 

(2)  {Dem.  139).  Arrangement:  the  progress  from  the  usual 
to  the  unusual,  from  the  concrete  to* the  abstract;  as  in  Xeno- 
phon's  words  regarding  Cyrus:  "As  presents  he  gives  him  a 
horse,  a  robe,  a  linked  collar,  and  the  assurance  that  his  country 
should  be  no  longer  plundered." 

^  Ed.  and  trans.  Rhys  Roberts,  1902;  I  have  used  this  translation  here. 


Compare  Horace,  Car.  I,  XV,  11  f.: 

iam  galeam  Pallas  et  aegida 
cumisque  et  rabiem  parat. 

So  Vergil: 


and: 


and: 


ruit  Oceano  nox 
involvens  umbra  magna  terramque  polumque 
Myrmidonumque  dolos  (II,  250  ff.); 

tectum  augustum,  ingens  .  .  . 

horrendum  silvis  et  religione  parentum  (VII,  170  flf.); 


Paeoniis  revocatum  herbis  et  amore  Dianae  {ib.  769). 

(3)  {Dem,  263).    Alleged  "praetermission" : 

quid  repetam  exustas  Erycino  in  litore  classes, 
quid  tempestatum  regemj  ventosque  furentes 
Aeolia  excitos,  aut  actam  nubibus  Irim?    (X,  36  ff.)- 

Compare  Catullus,  LXIV,  116  flF.: 

sed  quid  ego  a  primo  digressus  carmine  plura 
commemorem,  ut  .  .  .  ut  .  .  .  ut  .  .  . 

(4)  (Dem,  50  f.).  Working  to  a  climax  in  phrasing:  as 
Plato's:  "when  a  man  suffers  music  to  play  upon  him  and  to 
flood  his  soul  through  his  ears."    Such  is: 

quippe  ferant  rapidi  secum  verrantque  per  auras  (I,  59). 

(5)  {Dem.  48  f.).  Cacophony:  "impressive  eflFect  is  pro- 
duced by  a  harsh  collocation  of  words — as  for  example  in  the 
line: 

Alas  6'  6  likyar  alkv  k^'  'Exropt  xa^oKopixrrg." 

Compare: 

insequitur  clamorque  virum  stridorque  rudentum  (I,  87); 

and: 

exoritur  clamorque  virum  clangorque  tubarum  (II,  313); 

and: 

monstrum  horrendum  informe  ingens,  cui  lumen  ademptum 

(in,  658). 

(6)  {Dem.  156).  Use  of  proverbs:  "by  its  very  nature  there 
is  a  certain  piquancy  in  a  proverb."    Such  is  given  by: 

una  salus  victis  nullam  sperare  salutem  (II,  354); 

and: 

spes  sibi  quisque  (XI,  309). 


■''ui 


64 


HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 


INFLUENCE  OF  HELLENISTIC  TECHNIQUE 


65 


Nor  is  the  use  of  rhetorical  figures  confined  to  any  particular 
epoch  of  poetry.  Though  Vergil  undoubtedly  made  deliberate 
use  of  antithesis,  repetition,  traductio,  paronomasia  and  the 
like,"  examples  of  these  can  be  found  in  Homer.  So  can  chias- 
mus, and  that  kind  of  arrangement  of  words  of  which  Kvic^ala 
gives  so  many  interesting  illustrations  from  the  Aeneid}^ 
Caspari  has  quoted  some  Hellenistic  illustrations,^'  and  such 
examples  have  caused  Norden  to  refer  the  symmetrical  placing 
of  words  in  the  Aeneid  partly  to  Hellenistic  poetry,  partly  to 
rhetoric.*^  Certainly  parallels  are  interesting,  and  a  few  may 
be  given  here: 

Aen.  XII,  103  f.    mugitus  veluti  cum  prima  in  proelia  iaurus 

terrificos  ciet  atque  irasci  in  coraua  temptat; 

A.  R.  n,  1118  f.  Toi)i  6*  invdis  KparepQ  <rifv  Sobpari  icOnaTos  bpy.ii 

vlriat  ^pl^iCHO  ner'  iitbvas  /3dXc  iHi<rov: 


Aen.  I,  242  f. 


ArUenor  potuit,  mediis  elapsus  Achivis, 
Hljrricos  penetrare  sinus  atque  intima  tutus; 


A.R.  I,  28  f.        <^r77oi  5'  AyptASes,  «£iny$  In  (Hinara  moXt^s, 


Aen.  I,  592  f. 


quale  manus  addunt  ebon  decus,  aut  ubi  fiavo 
argentum  Pariusve  lapis  circumdatur  auro; 


A.R.  I,  685  f.      irwj  TrifUK  ^uxrwBt  SwroMMopoi;  ^t  ^oBdaii 


Aen.  I,  9  f. 


quidve  dolens  regina  deum  tot  volvere  casus 
insignem  pietate  virum,  tot  adire  labores 
impulerit; 


A.R.  I,  1168  f.    tieir<r60ev  i^ev  kptrphv.     drdp  rpbit^  JWo  ^ikv  aifrin 

Aen.  n,  314.         arma  amens  capio;  nee  sat  rationis  in  armis ; 
A.R.  n,  365.      Al7iaXd$*    TokhK  b*  iirl  xtlpaffiM  kiyiOLKoto. 

»^  Chohneley  notes  examples  of  these  figurfes  in  Theocritus:  cd.  1913,  pp. 

39  ff. 

i«  Ueher  die  WortsymmeUrie  in  der  Aeneis,  Neue  Beitrdge,  1881,  pp.  274  ff. 

^^  De  ratione  quae  inter  Vergilium  et  Lucanum  intercedat^  1908,  pp.  88  f.; 
see  also  Meta  Glass,  The  Fusion  of  Stylistic  Elements  in  VergiPs  Georgics,  1913, 
pp.  26  ff . 

w  Ed.  Aeneid,  VP,  1916,  p.  395. 


But  the  cause,  no  doubt,  is  partly  a  natural  rhythm,  partly 
that  artistic  feeling  which  Vergil  instinctively  possessed.  That 
this  feeling  was  to  some  extent  stimulated  by  study  of  later 
Greek  style,  seems  reasonable;  its  results  run  throughout  the 
work:  the  technique  is  more  monotonous  in  the  carmina 
minora,  wonderfully  varied  in  the  Aeneid,  Individual  points 
of  arrangement  seen  in  Vergil  can  certainly  be  paralleled  in 
Homer  or  in  Lucretius,  and  might  well  be  entirely  spontaneous; 
the  fact,  however,  that  such  points  meet  us  in  close  succession 
in  the  Vergilian  work  seems  to  point  to  the  conscious  artist. 
In  the  first  hundred  lines  of  Aeneid  II  we  find  numerous  exam- 
ples :^^ 
L  4.  Troianas  ut  opes  et  lamentabile  regnum: 

cf.  47;  62; 
1.  11.  et  breViter  Troiae  supremum  audire  labor  em: 

cf.  35;  51; 
1.  13.  fracti  bello  fatisque  repulsi: 

cf.  61; 
L  20.  ingentes  uterumque  arma  to  milite  complent; 

1.  26.  ergo  omnis  longo  solvit  se  Teucria  luctu: 

cf.  39;  42;  93; 
1.  31.  pars  stupet  innuptae  donum  exitiale  Minervae: 

cf.  for  the  assonance  38;  45,  46;  53;  and  notice  the 

linking  verbs  in  these  passages;^ 


L7. 

1.33. 

1.96. 


Myrmidonum  Dolopimive  aut  duri  miles  Ulixi\ 
duct  intra  muros  hortatur  et  arce  locari; 
promisi  ultorem  et  verbis  odia  aspera  movi: 
cf.  68; 


U.  19,  20. 


L50. 
IL  58,  59. 

IL  79,  80. 


a  c  b 

includunt  caeco  lateri,  penitusque  cavemas 

b  c  a 

ingentes  uterumque  armato  milite  complent; 

a  b  a  b 

sic  fatus  validis  ingentem  viribus  hastam; 
pastores  magno  ad  regem  clamore  trahebant 
Dardanidae; 

hoc  primum;  nee,  si  miserum  fortuna  Sinonem 
finxitf  vanum  etiam  mendacemque  improba  finget; 


«  See  Chohneley,  loc.  cU.;  Kirby  Flower  Smith,  ed.  Tibullus,  1913,  pp. 
104  ff. 

"  The  fragment  of  Hermesianaz  from  Athenaeus  is  full  of  this  assonance; 
and  it  frequently  occurs  in  Catullus  (K.  F.  Smith,  p.  104). 


66  HELLENISTIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  AENEID 

11.  97,  98.  hinc  mihi  prima  mali  labes,  hinc  semper  UUxes 

criminibus  terrere  novis,  hinc  spargere  voces: 
d .  29,  30. 

The  spondaic  ending  is  a  well  known  point  of  Alexandrian 
and  neoteric  technique;^  in  the  particular  hundred  lines  I 
am  discussing,  Vergil,  as  we  are  aware,  has  used  the  spondee 
with  beautiful  effect  to  express  Sinon's  slow  inspection  0.  68): 

constitit  atque  oculis  Phrygia  agmina  circumsp)exit.** 

A  similar  art  is  seen  in  Book  VII,  634: 

aut  leves  ocreas  lento  ducunt  argento; 

on  which  Conington  noted  that  "the  spondaic  metre  expresses 
the  slowness  of  the  process."  "Forms  of  spondaic  endings," 
wrote  Munro,^  "borrowed  from  the  Greek  and  mostly  applied 
to  Greek  words,  are  not  uncommon  in  Catullus,  Virgil,  and 
Ovid."  And,  again,  we  find  also  polysyllabic  endings  due  to 
Greek  influence:  "Now,  in  Virgil  such  endings  as  quadrupedan- 
turn  ancipitemquey  and  in  Catullus  such  a  one  as  egredientem^ 
are  exceedingly  uncommon.  But  these  poets  make  one  striking 
exception  in  favour  of  Greek  words  and  delight  to  close  a  verse 
with  hymenaeusy  Deiopeay  Thersilochumquey  and  the  like:  a 
concession  to  Greek  rhythm  and  a  prettiness  which  Lucretius 
would  not  care  for."**  Yet  it  is  the  combining  of  this  and  mani- 
fold other  types  and  varieties  of  verse  into  a  perfect  union, 
which  gives  to  Vergil's  rhythm  the  unique  power  that  it  has 
ever  held. 

*»  Glover,  op.  cU.y  p.  62,  referring  to  Munro's  discussion  of  the  Latin  hexam- 
eter, Lucretius,  vol.  ii,  p.  14. 

*•  Cf .  the  slow  and  reluctant  smile  of  Cocytus  (Henn.  ap.  Athen.  line  9.) : 

Ct5€. 

*  Munro,  ibid.,  p.  14. 
» Ibid.,  p.  13. 


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